[Quakers]: [American Revolution]:

$8,500 · Offered by William Reese Company

A TESTIMONY GIVEN FORTH FROM OUR YEARLY-MEETING, HELD AT PHILADELPHIA, FOR PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW-JERSEY, BY ADJOURNMENTS, FROM THE 29th DAY OF THE NINTH MONTH TO THE 4th OF THE TENTH MONTH INCLUSIVE, ... A rare broadside concerning the so-called "Quaker exiles," the Philadelphia Friends who were rounded up, held without hearing, and banished to the Virginia frontier in 1777–1778, during the height of the American Revolution. Signed in type by clerk Isaac Jackson on behalf of the Yearly Meeting, the broadside calls for the release of "A Number of our Friends" who have recently "been imprisoned and banished, unheard, from their Families, under a Charge and Insinuation that 'they have in their general Conduct and Conversation evidenced a Disposition inimical to the Cause of America.'" When war broke out between Britain and its North American colonies, many Quakers remained steadfast in their religious commitment to pacifist principles, refusing to pay taxes, bear arms, or take oaths of allegiance on behalf of the Patriot cause. This pacifism was met with suspicion by American Revolutionaries, who accused Quakers of secretly supporting the British. In August and September 1777, with Philadelphia under imminent threat of capture by the enemy, Quakers became the victims of growing persecution. Patriot suspicions were seemingly confirmed when, on August 25, 1777, the Continental Congress received a letter from Major-General John Sullivan reporting the discovery of several documents,

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