“To Bind Up the Nation’s Wounds” ~ Quaker Work during Reconstruction, 1865-1877

This conference will examine how The Society of Friends labored to extend its charitable work, which it had commenced during the Civil War, to care for those, both black and white, who had bore the battle and now lived with the devastation of the aftermath of war. Friends labored to see the Light so they could discern the right and work to achieve “a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all Nations.” The conference would like to focus primarily on the ministries of the western Yearly Meetings while also acknowledging the great contributions made by the eastern Yearly Meetings.

SUGGESTED TOPICS:

• Papers on the “Concerns” and ministerial outreach from 1865-1877 of the western Yearly Meetings, specifically:
• Indiana Yearly Meeting (Orthodox, FUM)
• Indiana Yearly Meeting (Hicksite, FGC ~ now known as Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting)
• Western Yearly Meeting (Orthodox, FUM)
• Ohio Yearly Meeting (Orthodox, Gurneyite, Wilburite)
• Ohio yearly Meeting (Hicksite)
• Quaker Ministry in North Carolina after the Civil War, specifically:
• Baltimore Yearly Meeting (which during the war and after included the old Virginia Yearly Meeting. VYM remained Orthodox, a Half-Year Meeting within Baltimore Yearly Meeting)
• Baltimore Yearly Meeting (Hicksite)
• Baltimore Yearly Meeting (Gurneyite, Wilburite)
• North Carolina Yearly Meeting
• The central importance of New Garden Boarding School, which became Guilford College in 1888.
• Any ministries of the western Yearly Meetings mentioned above
• Quaker Ministry to the ‘Contraband” throughout the South
• Quaker influence and work in the various “Contraband” refugee camps
• Educational ministry ~ schools established by western Yearly Meetings
• Health/Medical ministries
• Quaker ministries to northern Freedmen and women.
• Biographies of various Friends in ministry during the last part of the Civil War and during Reconstruction.
• Examination of how the Quaker spiritual revival which began during the Civil War influenced Quaker outreach during the war and then Reconstruction.
• How the Civil War and Reconstruction effected the Quaker peace movement.
• “Then & Now” ~ Compare and contrast the crisis after the Civil War and the Quaker response then with the various crisis’ today and present Quaker response (e.g. Iraq War, Afghanistan War).

Selected papers will be published in a conference publication, a yearly journal, “Western Quakers.” Selected authors will be asked to speak during the conference.

Format: 20 pages single space, Chicago Manual Style, 15th Edition (2003) Referenced Bibliography Photographs, .jpeg

Papers due: February 1st, 2010