Quaker History

70Quaker History laissez-faire. In otherwords, Quakerpolicywas thatinhabitants ofPennsylvania were free to "do their own thing," as modem liberals would say, without interference from government as long as they didnot disturb the peace. But a "liberal" society as we know it and a laissez-faire conception of government was no part ofthe early modern worldview. There is therefore a whiggish tilt to the argument when the authors write that "Pennsylvanians anticipated modern Americans" (4). The behavior ofthe masses may have, but individualism was an unintended consequence of Quaker policies. Friends' "liberal" attitudes were not based on a secularunderstanding ofthe right of the individual to be left alone by government to do whatever he chose, but rather the right ofthe individual to be free to find God. In other words, the assumption that Quakers were unconcerned about the spiritual well-being oftheir constituents is faulty. Liberty ofconscience, the foundational liberty of Pennsylvania, was not purely a "negative" liberty, as Marietta and Rowe maintain (4); it was in important ways a positive liberty, the intent ofwhich was to help people towards right religion. While Friends certainly sacrificed their peaceful principles for order, this adaptation does not equate to a policy of laissez-faire; nor did Quakers abandon their mission entirely. Alan Tully has argued convincingly that the "civil Quakerism " thatwas enforced at the highest levels ofgovernment also permeated the population, indicating a concern that the Quaker ethic be perpetuated as much as circumstances would permit {Forming American Politics:Ideals, Interests, and Institutions in Colonial New York and Pennsylvania, 1994). Its interpretive shortcoming notwithstanding, this book is immensely valuable. Readers shouldbe alert to the anachronism in the idea ofa "liberal" Pennsylvania, but as problematic as this assumption is, it does notnegate the importance of Marietta's and Rowe's contribution to Pennsylvania and Quaker history. As long as we remember that the imperatives ofthe Quaker leaders and those of modem policymakers are different, we can agree that "crime and its causes in the United States recapitulate the experience of Pennsylvania." (6). Jane E. CalvertUniversity of Kentucky Charles Brockden Brown 's Revolution and the Birth ofAmerican Gothic. By Peter Kafer. Philadelphia: University ofPennsylvania Press, 2004. xxi + 249 pp. Illustrations, notes, and index. $39.95. The novels ofthe Philadelphia Quaker writer Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810) include spontaneous combustion, the yellow fever epidemic ofthe 1790s, andmurderwhile sleep-walking, wildly inventiveplot devices Book Reviews71 that are hardly the sort ofthing one associates with the Society ofFriends. In spite of Brown's lifelong attendance at Quaker meeting in Philadelphia and in New York, his Quakerism and the Quaker themes in his works have puzzled scholars, producing a few dissertations and occasional—and not very helpful—speculations about possible Quaker influence. Kafer contends that Quakerism and Quaker history in Pennsylvania pervade the four significant novels (Wieland, 1798; ArthurMervyn, 17991800 ; Ormond, 1799; andEdgarHuntly, 1799), citing the Kelpius community ofthe 1690s (1 14-19), his father Elijah Brown andhis "exile" to Virginia during the Revolution (1-7 and 36-37), the Brown family connections to reformers such as John Churchman (23-20 and 118-21), and Revolution-era mobs that threatened Philadelphia (41-42). These influences, along with events of the 1 790s (the French Revolution, yellow fever, troubles with France, the Jay Treaty, the works of William Godwin, and more), are the basis for many ofthe eerie happenings in Brown's best-known works. In only two years, Brown published four novels, all ofthem brilliant if flawed in part by their complicatedplots. After this creative burst, however, something happened to Brown's Gothicism and to his Quakerism. The novels Clara Howard ana Jane Talbot, (both 1801) are sentimental. Afterwards , he continued to write for and edit one magazine after another (sometimes writing most of the issue), produced Federalist political pamphlets , and also worked in the family business. Just as no one has explainedwhyBrownwrote so much so quickly, no one has adequately explained why Brown's remarkable career as a novelist ended so quickly. For Kafer, Edgar Huntly acted as a "psychological purgative," after which he wrote only happy endings (185). He had also married (out ofmeeting) and soon was the father of four children. The last hurrah of Brown...