Prisoners of Congress: Philadelphia's Quakers in Exile, 1777-1778

During the Revolutionary War, Congress labeled Quakers who refused to fight as "the most Dangerous Enemies America knows" and ordered their exile to Virginia. This narrative of political and literal warfare sheds new light on an essential aspect of American history, appealing to anyone interested in learning more about the nation's founding.

Format: Hardback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 13 June 2023
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press

In 1777, Congress labeled Quakers who refused to take up arms in support of the War of Independence as "the most Dangerous Enemies America knows" and ordered Pennsylvania and Delaware to apprehend them. In response, Keystone State officials sent twenty men, seventeen of whom were Quakers, into exile, banishing them to Virginia, where they were held for a year.

Prisoners of Congress reconstructs this moment in American history through the experiences of four families: the Drinkers, the Fishers, the Pembertons, and the Gilpins. Identifying them as the new nations first political prisoners, Norman E. Donoghue II relates how the Quakers, once the preeminent power in Pennsylvania and an integral constituency of the colonies and early republic, came to be reviled by patriots who saw refusal to fight the English as borderline sedition.

Surprising, vital, and vividly told, this narrative of political and literal warfare waged by the United States against a pacifist religious group during the Revolutionary War era sheds new light on an essential aspect of American history. It will appeal to anyone interested in learning more about the nation's founding.

Weight: 544g
Dimension: 229 x 152 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780271095073