Becoming the Quakers the World Needs Part 1: Sarah Mapps Douglas
Emerson LaWall-Shane, Milwaukee Friends Meeting
Part 1 of Keynote presentation to
Northern Yearly Meeting Annual Session, Saturday, May 24, 2025
Becoming the Quakers the World Needs
Hello, my name is Emerson and I am a Sophomore Music and Art History Major at Earlham College. Attending a quaker school, I have the privilege of coming into contact with Quaker history every single day and not just in a metaphorical way. I actually work in Earlham’s Quaker archives, which means that I’m literally handling historic Quaker documents, and the collection that I was working on most recently is a collection of papers from a FUM [Friends United Meeting] committee called the Associated Executive Committee on Indian Affairs. This collection was quite problematic in that it included information about the committee’s effort to convert and manipulate the native population. There were times when I was working on these papers where I felt disgusted and embarrassed by this part of Quaker history. But I chose to take it as a learning opportunity and acknowledge that the past is full of both good and bad. But knowing the past means that we can avoid repeating the negative parts, while being inspired by figures who can teach us what it means to be advocates for peace and justice. So as Lauri and I, and all of us here at NYM this weekend are thinking about this topic of being the Quakers the world needs, I would like to talk about the inspiring story of one Quaker woman named Sarah Mapps Dougless.
Sarah Mapps Douglass was an educator, abolitionist, and advocate for women’s rights. She was born September 9th, 1806 to Grace and Robert Douglass. Sarah’s mother Grace was a committed member of Arch Street Friends Meeting in Philadelphia, but because she was black woman, Grace had to sit on the back bench of the meeting house with her children. As Sarah grew up, she watched all her mother’s efforts be ignored by the meeting. This sparked both a passion for social justice and a tense relationship with the Religious Society of Friends from a young age. When Sarah was just 23 years old, she became involved with William Lloyd Garrison, creator of the Anti-Slavery newspaper called The Liberator. She was also involved in a number of societies and committees related to abolition and women’s rights. Sarah was an active participant in the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society – founded by her mother – The Vice President of the Women’s Freedman’s Relief Association, a delegate of the Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women, and the Co-Founder of the Female Literary Association. In a discussion of slavery with the Female Literary Association in 1832, Sarah Mapps Douglass said “I had formed a little world of my own, and cared not to move beyond its precincts. But how was the scene changed when I beheld the oppressor lurking on the border of my own peaceful home!” Which I believe is a quote many people might still resonate with today. After Sarah’s mother died in 1842, she grew even more adamant on the inclusion of African Americans in Quaker meetings.
Beyond all of the conventions and societies that Sarah attended, she had a deep passion for education and taught for over fifty years. Sarah moved to New York City in 1833 to teach at an African Girls School where she was beloved by all of her students. She greatly enjoyed mentally stimulating activities like painting, writing, and reading.
She once published an article in The Liberator called “Mental Feasts” which was about her meetings with the Female Literary Association. She also began attending college classes at the age of 46 showing her commitment to knowledge and learning. In 1852, she enrolled in the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania which was founded by Quaker women just two years prior. Although she didn’t complete her degree from the Medical College, she grew quite close with her professors and continued to attend lectures at the Penn Medical College. With the knowledge she gained from these schools, she went back to New York and gave lectures about physiology and anatomy to her students. In 1864, Sarah became one of the co-founders of the Stephan Smith Home for Aged and Infirm Persons of Color where she cared for black men and women of old age who had been affected by slavery and discrimination and couldn’t find medical care elsewhere.
Later in life, Sarah experienced an era of spiritual exploration and was eventually able to reconcile her relationship with Arch Street Friends Meeting, where she was welcomed with open arms, no longer asked to sit on the back bench. She died on September 8th, 1882, the day before her 76th birthday.
I have come to believe that the bad and the good are equally important when discussing the past because from the negative we can find growth, and from the positive, inspiration. Sometimes I wonder if as a music major, I will make any difference in the world. Will I do the same amount of good in the world as a student going into Environmental Sustainability or Peace & Global Studies? Then I remember that Sarah Mapps Douglass was primarily a teacher. That her passion for education didn’t keep her from getting involved in social issues that she cared about. So I take Sarah Mapps Douglass as an example for the kind of Quaker I can, and want to be. She inspires me to get involved in social issues that matter to me, whether that is through joining a student organization that shares my concerns or by keeping myself educated on current events. I am reminded that my actions have an impact, and that I can be a force for good.