Undeniable Truths

15″ x 30″ x 1.5″ acrylic on canvas.

Listening to the news this week, I heard multiple people say that folks “lack the imagination” to change the status quo. I think they meant that folks “lack the will.”

This distinction came up in my slavery class this week. You know the Quakers? 

Quakers (historically a protestant denomination) started in 1650 in England. They’re known as pacifists and established the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania (thanks to wealthy Quaker William Penn). 

In 1947, Quakers won the Nobel Peace Prize for their peace work from 1810 (est. the first peace organization) to WW2.

The’re also known as the first (white) antii-slavery abolitionists…enslaved people were, of course, the first abolitionists!

I had my students read one of the earliest “anti-slavery” texts—written around 1660 by Thomas Tryon, an English quasi-Quaker-vegetarian-pacifist-hatter on Barbados.

His fictional dialogue between an enslaved man and his enslaver was radical. It’s a 25-page page take down of Christian hypocrisy:

Enslaved man: “But then I cannot but also much wonder and admire that you Christians live and walk so wide from, and contrary unto all those undeniable Truths, and holy Rules, so that what you preach with your Tongues, you pull down with your Hands, and your daily Conversation gives the Lye to your Profession.” (Krise, 1999, p.51)

That’s a serious 17th c. mic drop! However, Tryon isn’t really anti-slavery. He’s just against the cruel treatment of the enslaved.

Tryon isn’t really anti-slavery. He’s just against the cruel treatment of the enslaved.

You see, after fiercely critiquing the hypocrisy of Christian enslavers, the dialogue  ends with the enslaved man saying (paraphrased), “If you treat us well, then we’ll be happy and we’ll be much more productive for you.”

Turns out, for the next 100 years, only a small handful of white folks are known to have had the imagination (aka will) to imagine a world without slavey. Like Tryon, they may have been against cruelty, but they just couldn’t/wouldn’t imagine a world without slavery. 

And so, although the Quakers get much of the credit for abolition, it wasn’t until about 1760 (100 years after Tryon) that they finally renounced slavery. 

I keep thinking about these powerful historical structures that continue to shape our lives and the counter-structures of solidarity that effect change… and I keep drawing lines.