Quakers and Drinking: an Interview with Quaker Scholar in Residence, Professor Thomas Hamm

william penn statue

Passing through Philadelphia, it seemed natural to explore the religious views of the Quakers regarding drinking. After all, the founder of the city, William Penn, is likely America’s most famous Quaker.

I began my search for an expert on Quaker history at the Friends Center in downtown Philadelphia. They directed me to the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College, who then suggested I speak with Earlham College’s Professor of History and Quaker Scholar in Residence, Thomas Hamm, Ph. D.

Professor Hamm spoke with me on the phone and surveyed the history of Quakers and drinking, from the abandonment of wine as a sacrament, through Quaker involvement in the Temperance Movement, to the business of hot chocolate and root beer. 

Drinking in the Quaker religion is a moving target, but makes for a fascinating history. 

Quaker Temperance Beer
A 1908 advertisement for Quaker Drink, a non-alcoholic alternative to beer. from The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.), 12 April 1908. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85038485/1908-04-12/ed-1/seq-8/

The following interview has been edited for concision and clarity. 

Q: Could you please give a broad overview of the origins and beliefs of Quakerism? 

A: Quakerism is one of the radical movements that emerged from the English Civil War of the 1640s and 1650s. It was a time when old structures of church and state broke down, so you had dozens of radical new religious groups appear with names like Diggers, Ranters, Levellers, and Muggletonians. The group which originally called themselves the Children of the Light, later the Friends of the Light and ultimately the Religious Society of Friends or the Quakers, is the only one of those that is still with us today.

The central person in the beginning of this movement was a young man by the name of George Fox who was born in 1624. In the late 1640s, Fox had a series of experiences, where he was convinced that God had directly revealed certain truths to him. These revelations, he called them “openings,” would be a way to revive primitive Christianity in the world. 

First of all, you have Fox’s conviction that revelation from God to human beings didn’t cease when the last book of the Bible was written. It was continuous. God still talks to people today, the same way God inspired people 2,000 years ago in the days of the Apostles and Prophets. Secondly, Fox was convinced that all people have within them a certain diving light, the light of Christ. If they were obedient to that light, then it would lead them to be good people, and when they died they would go to heaven. If they ignored the light, then it would be extinguished. They were bad people, and they would be damned after death. 

Another one of Fox’s convictions was that true Christian ministry wasn’t based on education. He famously said that being raised up at Oxford or Cambridge did not make a man a minister of Jesus Christ. Instead, true Christian ministry or preaching was always directly inspired by God. 

And God could inspire women, just as much as men. So one of the things that marked Quakers as very radical from the beginning was that women played a leading role. They were preachers engaged in ministry and public prayer. 

Finally, Fox argued that true Christians were called to be actively opposed to the vanities of the world–anything that puffed up human pride. Whether it was your own pride or someone else’s pride, it was to be avoided. That meant that Quakers did not engage in the rituals and ceremonies of deference, acknowledgement of hierarchy, that marked you as polite or acting properly in 17th century England. They didn’t bow and curtsy, men didn’t remove their hats in the presence of social superiors, Quakers didn’t use titles like Your Honor, Your Excellency, My Lord, or My Lady. They insisted on using the plain language of “thee” and “thy” to everybody. 

That is Quakerism as it developed in the 17th century. Over the past 200 years considerable diversity has developed among Quakers. Quakerism began in the British Isles and it spread to North America in the 17th century. As a result of Quaker missionary work undertaken largely by Friends from the United States, there are now large groups of friends in Latin America and East Africa. In fact, if you want to imagine the typical Quaker in the world today, that would be a young black person living in rural Western Kenya. Over half of the Quakers in the world today are in Kenya. 

You find considerable diversity in theology and worship as well. Quakers encompass everyone from the most Bible thumping fundamentalists to the most liberal universalists–the chain yourself to the nuclear missile as a peace protest kind of activist. Some Quaker worship today is still based on silent waiting as it originally was. Most, though, have a pastoral form of worship that is centered around a sermon and hymn singing, not so much different than what you would find in most Protestant churches. 

George Fox
George Fox, foundational thinker of the Quaker movement. From https://lccn.loc.gov/2003670321,George Fox [graphic]. c1835 Apr. 4. 1 print. PGA - Lehman & Duval--George Fox

Q: In the development of Quakerism, was wine used in religious service as some form of eucharist at any point? 

A: That’s another thing that distinguished Friends from the very beginning. George Fox taught that all sacraments, if they are understood properly, are purely spiritual. So, Quakers did not practice water baptism, they did not have anything like the Eucharist or communion. Wine wasn’t an issue because there was no bread or wine being offered in Quaker worship. 

Today, you would find a few Friends who do practice physical communion, but they always use grape juice. 

Q: At what point did temperance rhetoric enter the Quaker dialogue?

A: Certainly from the beginning, Quakers were expected to adhere to a very strict code of Christian conduct and one element of that was that drunkenness was something that was always unacceptable. Generally, Quakers, when they could, stayed away from taverns and pubs, not so much because they were opposed to alcohol consumption, but because taverns and pubs were associated with boisterous worldly behavior, drunkenness and profanity. Often they were haunts of prostitutes and other vain and worldly people. 

But originally Quakers were not opposed to alcohol consumption in moderation. The emergence of a Quaker commitment to total abstinence parallels the development of the Temperance Movement in the United States and Great Britain in the course of the 19th century. By 1900, just about all American Friends were committed to total abstinence as an article of faith. Consuming alcohol could result in loss of membership. Similarly if you were a merchant selling alcoholic beverages, except for use as medicine, it could result in loss of membership.

Quakers of the British Isles were not quite as committed. Many of them were involved in various Temperance Movements. I find it interesting that in the 1940s, a Quaker Member of the House of Commons, who was a Member of the Labor Party, was also the Secretary of the National Labor Temperance Council. But it really wasn’t until the mid-20th century that English Friends finally began to call for total abstinence. Almost immediately having done that, they started to move away from it.

This 1913 WCTU article reads, "'Friend,' replied a Quaker, 'that is the most terrible part of thy business; thee takes the young, the poor, the innocent and the unsuspecting, making drunkards and loafers of them. When their character and money are all gone, thee kicks them out and turns them over to the other shops to finish them off.'" From The Dolores star. [volume] (Dolores, Montezuma County, Colo.), 06 June 1913. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

Q: Was the prominent role of women in Quakerism a key factor in introducing the early strains of the temperance movement into religious rhetoric? 

A: I think it certainly had an influence. There were connections. If you look at the early Women’s Rights Movement in the United States in the 19th century, Quaker women have a disproportionate role in its leadership. If you look at what these women’s rights advocates were saying, they were committed to Prohibition. One of the arguments for giving women the right to vote was that when women get the vote, they would vote out the saloon. That explains why brewers and distillers were spending money to defeat the women’s suffrage movement.

In places where you have quaker communities, after the formation of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), you find Quaker women very actively involved. 

Q: Quakers have been interested in spreading their religion. Is this accurate? 

A: It depends on the time period and what kind of Quakers you are talking about. Originally, 17th century Quakers were very aggressive in spreading their message. By the 18th century, they had entered a period that historians call “Quietism” where they’re more focused on inward spiritual development and purity. 

In the 19th century, Quakers splintered into different groups, some of which were more evangelical than others. That’s when a Quaker missionary movement developed after 1860. You find Quaker missionaries going to India, China, the Caribbean, Mexico, and ultimately South American and Africa. On the other hand, you would have found some Quakers who would argue that all people have the light within them and that’s enough. 

Q: If you are more of a Quietist, are you less likely to be a Temperance Advocate?

A: Not necessarily. Often you would have found people who looked with disfavor on revivalism and evangelical Protestantism, but who would have put very much the same kind of energy into various kinds of reforms like anti-slavery, women’s rights, or the temperance movement. 

Hires Rootbeer Ad
An advertisment for Hires Root Beer which originally marketed itself as a temperance beverage. From Miami U. Libraries - Digital Collections, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Q: How does Quakerism dictate behaviors that should be practiced by adherents? 

A: It depends on the time period you are talking about. Until about 1860, all Quakers lived under a strict set of rules, a code of conduct that was called “the Discipline.” Some of those rules, you would have found among all Christians: don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t commit adultery. Some of them like requirements for total abstinence from alcohol developed in the 19th century. In 1860, there would have been a lot of peculiarly Quaker rules like using the language of “thee” and “thy,” wearing plain dress, not attending the theater, not having musical instruments in your home. Those rules were made by bodies that were called yearly meetings. 

For the Delaware Valley, the yearly meeting included Friends in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, but the rules were enforced at the local level by congregations or monthly meetings. For example, if it were reported that Thomas Hamm has so far deviated from the good order used among Friends as to have a piano in his home, a committee would have been sent to me and if I refused to repent and remove the piano then I would have been disowned, I would have lost my membership, I would no longer be considered a Quaker. 

That kind of discipline broke down among most Quakers after 1860. Quakers became largely acculturated, but well into the mid 20th century one of the rules that would have endured was an expectation of total abstinence. You could still find some very strict evangelical Quakers today for whom that is still true. 

I grew up a Quaker here in Indiana, I was born in 1957. I was 11 years old before I saw anyone take a drink of anything alcoholic, and when I did I fully expected lightning to strike. That just was not something that good people did in the world in which I grew up.

Q: I understand that Quakers may have offered hot chocolate as a social and sober alternative to alcohol. I also understand that some British Quakers were prominent chocolatiers. What exactly is the story with the hot chocolate idea? Was this business opportunism or genuine concern?

A: Before the mid-19th century, chocolate was always consumed as a beverage. It was three English Quaker chocolate firms, J. S. Fry & Sons , Rowntrees , and above all, Cadburys, who perfected solidifying chocolate into chocolate candy. Nevertheless, well into the 20th century, a significant part of their business was hot chocolate powders that would be drunk.

I don’t think you can argue that they developed the drinks as a temperance alternative to alcohol. On the other hand, as desires for temperance grew in many segments of English society, they saw an opportunity and took advantage of it. 

On the other hand, a very specific Philadelphia Quaker example of marketing a beverage as a temperance drink was Hires Root Beer. It was originally marketed as a tonic and became a beverage. 

Frys chocolate powder
The Frys, along with other British Quakers, were the first businesses to make solid, formed chocolate. They also sold drinkable chocolate powders. From Smithsonian nmah_1362395 https://www.si.edu/object/j-s-fry-sons-cocoa-tin:nmah_1362395

Q: Are there any concerns about other biologically active beverages like coffee, tea, or chocolate with caffeine?

A: There are a few Quakers who would regard any caffeinated beverage as the spawn of the devil. But that’s a very small group and that’s something that seems to have developed in the 20th century. It has largely been directed towards soft drinks as opposed to coffee and tea. 

I heard a story once where someone made the mistake of offering a particular type of Quaker neighbor a Pepsi Cola and got a long lecture about how, by offering Pepsi to her children, she was dragging their souls down to hell.

Q: Where does alcohol stand in the eyes of modern Quakers? Is this a personal choice?

A: If you look at the books of faith and practice of various Quaker groups, you will almost always find a warning against abuse of alcohol and narcotics. Very often you will find admonitions that the safest course is to avoid alcohol entirely. My sense though, is that only evangelical groups of Friends today would deprive someone of membership due to alcohol consumption. For most, it’s a matter of individual taste and conscience. 

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