Chesapeake (39 page)

CATHOLIC
: But you feel there are others, perhaps a fortunate few, maybe the more intellectual.

QUAKER
: There is no up nor down. In human beings there are differences which cause them to choose different paths.

CATHOLIC
: But what is your path? Which parts of the Bible do you accept?

QUAKER
: All of it. Every sacred word. And especially the teachings of Jesus Christ in the New Testament.

CATHOLIC
: Do you then reject the old?

QUAKER
: No, but we do not belabor it.

CATHOLIC
: How specifically do you utilize it?

QUAKER
: Thee touches a delicate point, Father Steed. There have been some among us and there are now … (Here Mrs. Paxmore hesitated, then spoke quickly with a certain confidentiality.) Indeed, my husband Edward is one of them who focus so strongly on the words of Jesus that they diminish the importance of the Old Testament—as if one could accept the New without comprehending the Old.

CATHOLIC
: Would not this be serious error?

QUAKER
: The same the Jews commit when they accept only the Old and ignore the New, as if one did not flow inevitably from the other.

CATHOLIC:
And you?

QUAKER
: Thy family asked Edward to build a shrine for thy pewter heritage, lest children born in ease forget. The Old Testament is a moral heritage upon which every word of the New is built. The New can never be understood except in reference to the Old.

CATHOLIC
: Do you Quakers accept the divinity of Jesus?

QUAKER
: Without question.

CATHOLIC
: Do you acknowledge the Virgin Birth?

QUAKER
: I have never heard it refuted.

CATHOLIC
: But do you accept it … in your heart?

QUAKER
: I do not ponder such miracles. There is too much work at hand, crying to be done.

CATHOLIC
: You reject faith as the core of Christianity?

QUAKER
: I base my life on James two-seventeen: ‘Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.’ I want faith, and I pray for its guidance, but the ultimate test for me is what the Christian does about it.

CATHOLIC
: For example?

QUAKER
: I can speak only for myself.

CATHOLIC
: I’m interrogating a Quaker, not the Quaker abstraction.

QUAKER
: I believe that jails as we have them now are a mortal sin against God. And I believe they must be changed for the better.

CATHOLIC
: Is that single belief an adequate cause for initiating a new religion?

QUAKER
: It is on such tendentious points that the soul of a revitalized religion rests.

CATHOLIC:
And you would throw overboard the grand assembly of saints in order to reform a prison?

QUAKER
: I would.

CATHOLIC
: You would be making a poor bargain.

QUAKER
: I would be directing my religion to the correction of a great evil, and God would approve.

CATHOLIC:
What is this
thee
and
thou?

QUAKER
: It is the manner in which Jesus spoke.

CATHOLIC
: And this hat on the head, even in church?

QUAKER:
Jesus directed men not to uncover their heads in deference to any authority.

CATHOLIC
: And this business of affirming in court rather than swearing?

QUAKER
: Jesus directed us at many different places not to use God as reference for our actions. We attest on our integrity, and do not take refuge in His.

CATHOLIC
: Is it true that your men will refuse to take arms in defense of our colony?

QUAKER:
War is an abomination, and must be seen as such. This will be our greatest testimony. Does thee understand, Neighbor Steed, that for us it is not enough to believe that war is wrong—to have faith that it’s wrong—we must also act.

CATHOLIC
: Are there other areas in which you feel impelled to act?

QUAKER
: There are. (It was obvious to the listeners that here Ruth Brinton wanted to cite a specific, but that some delicacy restrained her.)

CATHOLIC:
What was it you wished to say?

QUAKER
: Is thee inviting me to speak?

CATHOLIC
: I am indeed.

QUAKER
: I am convinced that one day all churches will see the immorality of slavery and will condemn it.

CATHOLIC
: Slavery? Why, slavery’s condoned in the Bible. Throughout the Bible. Old and New. Surely, Mrs. Paxmore, you don’t reject biblical teaching?

QUAKER
: I reject biblical interpretation which gives one man control over the life and destiny of another.

CATHOLIC
: I’m really quite … You mean that all biblical teaching about the duties of the slave to his master …

QUAKER
: It will be seen one day as terrible error which has been superseded.

CATHOLIC
: Do you mean to say that my brothers are sinful because they hold slaves?

QUAKER:
I do.

CATHOLIC
: So you see, Henry and Paul, you’re sinners. But, Mrs. Paxmore, doesn’t your husband hold slaves?

QUAKER:
He does.

CATHOLIC
: And is he also a sinner?

QUAKER
: He is. (At this point Edward Paxmore left the room, followed by the Steed brothers.)

CATHOLIC
: Let me understand what you’re saying, Mrs. Paxmore. You believe that on some day to come, the religious leaders of this world are going to convene and state that what the Bible has condoned since the days of Abraham, that what Jesus Himself approved of and against which He never spoke … You believe that our leaders are going to tell the world, ‘It is all wrong?’

QUAKER
: I expect to spend my life, Neighbor Steed, trying to convince my religion that slavery is wrong.

CATHOLIC
: Aha! Then even your religion doesn’t condemn it?

QUAKER
: Not now.

CATHOLIC
: And you would presume, one frail human being and a woman at that, to negate all the teaching of the churches and the Bible and human codes? How can you be so arrogant?

QUAKER
: Because God speaks to me as directly as he does to your Pope. And if I see that slavery is a dreadful wrong, it may simply be that God has spoken to me first. I am the weak vessel He has chosen, and I can do no other than obey. (This topic was returned to numerous times during the three days, and many ramifications were introduced, but in the end Father Steed stood confirmed in his belief that God had ordained a society in which some were inescapably intended to be slaves, enhancing the general welfare, while Ruth Brinton remained equally convinced that slavery was inhuman and must one day be eradicated. At the conclusion of one intense exchange, Father Steed raised an interesting question.)

CATHOLIC
: I know you said that you accept the New Testament, but do you accept all of it?

QUAKER:
I do.

CATHOLIC
: How about First Corinthians fourteen-thirty-five?

QUAKER
: I don’t know that verse.

CATHOLIC
: ‘It is a shame for women to speak in the church.’

QUAKER
: We Quakers do not hold much with Saint Paul.

CATHOLIC
: But was he not speaking for Jesus?

QUAKER
: It is quite possible to love Jesus but to wonder about Paul.

CATHOLIC
: If I understand what you said the other day, in your church women can serve as priests.

QUAKER
: We have no priests.

CATHOLIC
: I correct myself. Women like you serve as religious leaders?

QUAKER
: We lead no one, but we do speak in meeting.

CATHOLIC
: Is not that contrary to the teachings of Jesus?

QUAKER
: To the teaching of Paul, and I reject Paul.

CATHOLIC
: You think it proper for women to speak in church?

QUAKER
: I do. And further, I think it most improper that thy great religion places women in such an inferior position.

CATHOLIC
: Never! We revere Mary. We revere women as the foundation of the home.

QUAKER
: But thee accords them no place in the church. Men priests speak to men, never women to women, or to men either. Does thee consider us incompetent?

CATHOLIC
: No, but as I said before, all places in this world are ordained. Some are kings and they rule. Some are slaves and they serve. Some are women and they enjoy their special role, an honored one which does not include speaking in church.

QUAKER
: Thy church could use Mary as a symbol of salvation, a repairing of the damage done to women.

CATHOLIC
: Mrs. Paxmore, you seem prepared to give instructions to everyone. Slavery, women, prisons—what next?

QUAKER
: As James said, faith without works is nothing. For the rest of my life I propose to work.

CATHOLIC
: Do not underestimate the power of faith. Have you ever ministered to a dying man and seen the light come into his eyes when he hears from your lips that he is being embraced by the arms of his faith? Have you seen parents glow when they realize that their newborn is now baptized into their inalienable faith?

QUAKER
: I believe in faith as a saving spirit, and the moments you speak of are sacred.

CATHOLIC
: And don’t take arrogant pride in your silence. There must be singing too. In every part of the Bible men and women go forth with drums and psalteries. And I think there must be ritual, the same Holy Mass said in the same language in all corners of the universe. It binds us together.

QUAKER
: I have often thought that if I were not a Quaker … I thought this especially in Massachusetts where the religion was so dark and cruel. Once I looked up at the sheriff about to lash me and I could see no sign of God in that man’s face. If I were not a Quaker, I think I would be a Catholic.

CATHOLIC
: You reject Paul. But you accept Jesus?

QUAKER
: I do. I do.

CATHOLIC
: Then you must know that He ordained our church. He told Peter that he, Peter, was the progenitor, and that Peter’s church would be the one and only church of Christ. What say you to that?

QUAKER
: I say that forms change.

CATHOLIC
: But never the one unchangeable truth, the one unchangeable church. (At this point Ruth Brinton shrugged her shoulders, a most impolitic response to what Father Steed had intended as a benediction, but when he saw her gesture he laughed.) My Massachusetts was Virginia. I was hounded out of Virginia.

QUAKER
: I was shipped out … at the tail of a cart.

CATHOLIC
: Could we pray? All of us? Bring in the children, too, and fetch Paxmore.

When the Paxmores returned to Peace Cliff, Ruth Brinton warned her husband, ‘Edward, we must get rid of thy slaves.’

‘They’re on the edge of showing a profit.’

‘Profit? Dear Edward, what profits a man if he gain the world and lose his own soul?’

‘But the slaves are my property. The whole success of the boatyard depends—’

‘Then quit the boatyard.’

‘You mean, give up everything we’ve worked for? Ruth, these men are just beginning to master their trade. They’ll prove invaluable.’

‘Every day thee holds those people in slavery, thee endangers thy soul. Edward, get rid of them, now!’

‘Others have begun buying slaves, seeing how well ours work. James Lamb—’

‘We are not governed by what others do. We set our standards, and we are against slavery.’

‘Thee may be, but I’m not. I worked for other men and found nothing wrong. Now other men work for me, and I feed them better than I was fed.’

Ruth Brinton became so angry that she shook her obstinate husband and cried, ‘Doesn’t thee see that this ownership is contaminating thy soul?’

‘It’s not contaminating Lamb’s soul, nor Fry’s, nor Hull’s.’

She looked at her husband in disbelief and said no more, but that week she compiled a few notes to set her thoughts in order, and on First Day, at the Patamoke meeting house built by her husband, she delivered her historic address, the first anti-slavery message spoken in any church in America, but even these remembered words cannot convey the cold passion she used in uttering them: