The Quaker Ethic: Plain Living and High Thinking in American Culture
Author(s)
Shi, David E.
Abstract
Like the Puritan settlers of New England, the Quakers who founded Pennsylvania were intent on establishing a pious society dedicated to plain living and high thinking. However, economic success soon eroded the Quakers’ commitment to simplicity and spirituality. A religious revival in the mid-eighteenth century temporarily restored the traditional ethics of the Society of Friends (Quakers) but at the cost of diminished public influence for their beliefs.
