The Quaker Family in Colonial America: A Portrait of the Society of Friends by J. William Frost Review by: Duane E.

Ball The Journal of American History, Vol. 61, No. 2 (Sep., 1974), pp. 458-459 Published by: Organization of American Historians Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1903974 . Accessed: 28/02/2013 02:57
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458

The Journal of American History

Netherland,1647-1664: The Establishment Challenged." It is roundedoff by a judicious bibliographical essayand a good index. As indicatedby the in the foregoing, about half of the book deals with the religioussituation Netherlands, principally at Amsterdam, rather than with developments in the struggling colony. In his introduction to place George L. Smithstates:"This workattempts of thecolony's thestory of religionin New Netherland againstthebackdrop
commercial beginnings.
. .

was prevalent in thecolony -was secularvery early.The spirit of commerce predikanten fromthe veryoutset, and over the outragedcriesof Reformed it soon createdwithinthecolonya de factoreligiouspluralism"(p. xi). This seemsto be a blindingglimpseof theobvious.Naturally, Smithhas no difficulty whatever in establishingand documentingthe historical validityof his thesis.That God and Mammon went hand in hand in the golden days of the Dutch Republic,and thatMammon almostinvariably arose betweenthem,is prevailed over God when any conflict of interest in general and to those who are familiarto all students of Dutch history Nobody familiarwith the more particularly concernedwith Amsterdam. Van Dillen, worksof Dutch historians, suchas Geyl,Renier,Van Eeckhoff, Van Gelder, Van Hoboken, and otherswould maintainotherwise.The same truismis abundantly clear fromthe works of Americanhistorians such as J. Franklin Jameson and Thomas Condon. thereare still some myopicstudents who imaginethatthere If, however, was a close resemblance betweenthe rigidlyideological Puritansof New Scandinavians, Englandand themotley crewof Walloons, Dutch,Germans, will English,and Jewswho thinly populatedNew Netherlandin 1664, they an up-to-date be set to rights and meticuby thisbook. Smithhas written louslydocumented versionof an oft-told tale. If he does not add anything fair-minded new, his eminently work can find a welcome place on the in earlyAmericancolonial history. shelvesof anyoneinterested
INDIANA UNIVERSITY

. I conclude that New Netherland-New

York

C. R. BOXER

Friends.By J. William Frost. (New York: St. Martin'sPress, 1973. vi and index. $12.95.) + 248 pp. Appendixes,notes,bibliography, In his firstand no doubt best chapter,entitled "The Dry Bones of Quaker beliefs succinctly Quaker Theology,"J. William Frostsummarizes sects of the era. them with those of the more predominant and contrasts how religiousbeliefs of the Quakers to demonstrate Then, Frostattempts to funerals. rangingfromchildrearing in matters shaped theirlife-style Most of Frost's discussion is descriptive.When he does offersome about a cult of childhood,which he sees analysis,as in his observations

of A Portrait of the Society The QuakerFamilyin ColonialAmerica:

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Book Reviews

459

to findthathe growingup among Quakers after1760, it is disappointing childhood does not deal explicitly with the analyticalmodel concerning evidence and the family offered by Philippe Aries. Some of the descriptive in and of differentials is quantitative, as in his discussion of Quakerliteracy Quaker wealth relativeto the non-Quakerpopulation (developed out of and draws Philadelphiatax records). Most of Frost'sevidenceis qualitative on Quakerliterary sources, largely letters and diaries.Someof thebiographibut muchof cal detailsabout specific Quakers are gossipyyetfascinating, thisevidenceis tediousor extraneous. is supposedly repAll of thismaterial resentative in some way of all colonial Quakers and capable of providing for valid historical generalization. At some points Frost abandons Quakers as a group and draws on the about colonial society work of othersocial historians to make observations at large. For instance, he. informsus that "In colonial days recreation usuallytook secondplace to the sheeramountof workneeded to surprobablya generalvive." This statement is a staggering generalization, Frost's statement ization no historiancould ever hope to substantiate. about recreationand work in colonial days should be followed by some sortof evidentialsupport;insteadhe writes: "Alice Morse Earle has to process flax into describedthe staggeringamount of labor necessary linen or raw wool intomittens"(p. 83). Too often Frost's anecdotal evidenceproduces a welterof ambiguous thattheir or conflicting observations aboutcolonial Quakers.Some recorded were of diet while others faithdemandedfrugality and plainnessin matters recognized as extravagant in theireatinghabits.It is no wonder,then,that Frostconcludesthatthe colonial Friendswere a "mixed multitude";why then a study of the colonial Quaker family?Robert V. Wells studied colonial Quaker demography because theirreligiousbeliefs led Quakers a recordunavailableforany to leave a unique recordof theirvital history, othercolonial sector group. Frost'smethodsand purpose,however,never reveal just why he singles out colonial Quakers as a particular group requiringtheirown social history.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, DEARBORN DUANE E. BALL

William Penn and Early Quakerism.By Melvin B. Endy,Jr. (Princeton: Princeton University Press,1973. viii + 410 pp. Notes, selectedbibliography, and index. $17.50.) William Penn has been the subject of more than forty biographiesmorethanalmostany otherEnglishman. But he has been a subjectlike the alternately as a tree,snake,rope, elephantthatthe blind Indians described or spear according to wheretheyhappenedto place theirhands. No bioghas been servedbetterby raphyis reallysatisfactory, and understanding

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