Blog Post

Great Friends Meeting House – Newport, RI

Colonial Rhode Island and Newport were havens for religious dissenters.  The Charter of 1663 promised religious toleration to inhabitants of the Colony, and early laws promised similar religious toleration to inhabitants of Newport itself.  We have already seen how these ideals affected the layout of the city, and resulted in religiously diverse neighborhoods.  Now let’s spend the next few weeks exploring a few of these different belief systems.  Why did other colonies find them threatening, and what exactly did these people believe?  We’ll start with Quakerism before moving on to Judaism and African spiritualism.

George Fox started the Society of Friends in the 1640s.  Believing that the Catholics, Puritans, Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, and others were misrepresenting Christianity through their denominational conflicts, he spent several years wandering around England searching for a type of spirituality that made sense to him. After a few years, Fox received a series of “openings” (which we might consider revelations today), which led him to believe in the Light of Christ (or Inner Light as it would  come to be known).  He believed that every person had the Inner Light, and that if a person was attuned to this inner voice, he or she would realize his or her own sinfulness and come to salvation.  In other words, he began to advocate for immediate revelation, a type of spiritual understanding in which a person receives wisdom directly from God rather than through an intermediary.

As Fox gained followers in the following decades, political and religious leaders began to fear the movement.  In Anglican England and Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony, for instance, the government and religion were intimately tied, and a religion that offered individuals the ability to interpret spirituality for themselves undermined not only the leaders’ religious authority, but their political power as well.  The Friends themselves did not necessarily help matters; they purposefully attended other denominations’ services to interrupt and comment based upon their own interpretations of the Bible.  (You may remember from the post a few weeks ago that this is what Mary Dyer got in trouble for in Massachusetts Bay Colony.)

Because of their clashes with government in England and Massachusetts, the Friends began to migrate to Rhode Island in the mid 1600s, drawn by Rhode Island’s policies regarding religious toleration.  Many of them were drawn to Newport where the denomination flourished, growing to be one of the most influential in the city.  By 1699, the group had grown too large to meet in other structures, and the Quakers built their meetinghouse, the oldest standing house of worship in Rhode Island.

Interior of the 1699 portion of the building

Take a look at the picture.  The center square section dates to 1699.  From its position on a small hill (and with a cupola on top), the building was prominently located in town.  Quakers were not hiding; they were welcome in town and integral members of the community.  The interior of this space reflected Quaker theology.  Rather than decorating the space with elaborate ornamentation, they built a simple structure without any crosses or stained glass windows.  Services would have centered on quiet, individual meditation, only interrupted when an attendee felt moved by the Light of Christ to speak.  Thus, the space did not have a pulpit or altar.  They simply did not need a space for a community leader to deliver a weekly message.

The section of the building to our left was added on in 1705 and then altered in 1729 for the Women’s Meeting.  Since the Friends believed that everyone had access to the Inner Light, they treated women with (relatively) more respect than other denominations.  Women held separate meetings for church business; for instance, young couples planning to marry went before the women’s meeting for approval.  By giving women power within the community, and even letting them speak up and minister in worship services, Quakers were challenging English social norms; few others considered women to be the spiritual equal to men.  The Friends did not only talk about valuing their women, but they built this addition for the comfort of the women in the community.  They built this addition with a fireplace and a low ceiling, ensuring warmth in the face of cold New England winters.

As with other Newporters, Friends in Newport supported different sides of the American Revolution.  However, Quaker theology advocated for non-violence.  Similar to their treatment of women, since Quakers believed that everyone had access to the Inner Light, violence would mean killing someone with this light inside of him or her. Because of this, many refused to participate in the war, or even declare loyalty to one side or another, which led many in the community to distrust them.  Many Quakers left town due to this distrust, and also because Newport’s economic successes ended during the Revolution.  Despite this, the Friends community maintained enough members to make adding on to the meetinghouse again a reasonable possibility.  Thus, further additions were added in the 1800s to accommodate the New England Yearly Meeting.  As the denomination grew throughout New England, the region’s Friends met regularly to discuss denominational business.  The right side of the building reflects some of these earlier expansions.  Other additions were torn down in the 1900s when the building was restored.

Finally, the Friends belief in the Inner Light, which led them to treat women with relative respect and avoid participation in the Revolutionary War, also tied in with their treatment of slaves.  Although many early Quakers owned slaves (just as many others throughout colonial Newport and the British North American colonies at large), the Friends were some of the first antislavery advocates.  By the 1750s, Quakers began to believe that holding someone in bondage meant denying that person the ability to follow the teaching of the Inner Light.  Thus, Friends in Newport and across the colonies were instrumental in early antislavery movements.

The Quaker faith in general, and the Great Friends Meetinghouse more specifically in Newport, are fascinating topics of which we have only scratched the surface.  To learn more, check out the Newport Historical Society app which discusses the meetinghouse and has a number of pictures of the building throughout time.  And, to learn more about Quakerism, check out Thomas D. Hamm’s The Quakers in America.  Not only does it expand on historical Quakerism, but it traces the denomination and its theology to the present.