Donna McDaniel’s letter, "A closer look at sea captain Cuffe’s colonial aspirations, Quaker ties," on the March 6, 2008 Boston-Bay State Banner’s editorial page corrected misrepresentations in an article, "Sea Captain Paul Cuffe Makes Waves in Business."

Angelina Conti’s interview with Margaret Hope Bacon offers insights into this popular Quaker historian, writer, and activist’s life and work.

The Independence Hall Association presents a helpful timeline.

Paul Kriese, presented this message to members of the Quaker Youth Pilgrimage on July 19, 2006 at Wilmington College.

“I am the vine, you are the branches…now what fruit shall we bear?” (John 15)

“It is time for Friends to learn and understand our complete history” (Vanessa Julye)

 
Introduction

The vine is the knowledge that “there is that of God in everyone.” The branches demonstrate the various paths that this ‘knowledge’ takes. The fruit (witness, faith stance) will look different when it is presented to others.

Human experience lives in light and in shadow. The George Fox song suggests that “there is an “ocean of darkness” and an “ocean of light.” We need to look to both of these experiences to understand the different witnesses recorded and held. The history of the Religious Society of Friends is a compilation of different ‘branches’ bearing different harvests from the same ‘vine’. The experience of Friends in the United States is testimony to this reality.