Editing Quaker Philadelphia (section)

== Quakers and Social Reform ==

Philadelphia Quakers played leading roles in many of the reform movements that defined American history. Friends were among the earliest opponents of slavery in North America; the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery was the first formal protest against the institution in British America. Though Quaker slaveholding persisted into the mid-18th century, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting prohibited members from owning slaves by 1776, and Friends subsequently devoted enormous energy to abolition. Prominent Quaker abolitionists including Lucretia Mott organized anti-slavery societies, assisted fugitive slaves through the Underground Railroad, and advocated for immediate emancipation. The [[Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society]], founded in 1833, included many Quaker members and held its founding meeting at a Quaker school.<ref name="soderlund"/>

Quaker reform extended beyond slavery to encompass women's rights, education, prison reform, Native American rights, and peace advocacy. Lucretia Mott's activism bridged abolition and women's suffrage; she was a co-organizer of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention that launched the American women's rights movement. Quaker women, accustomed to speaking in meeting and participating in church governance on equal terms with men, were disproportionately represented among early feminists. The Friends' commitment to pacifism led to the founding of organizations that continue to advocate for nonviolent conflict resolution, including the American Friends Service Committee, established in Philadelphia in 1917 and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947. This tradition of principled activism remains central to Quaker identity and to Philadelphia's progressive heritage.<ref name="bacon">{{cite book |last=Bacon |first=Margaret Hope |title=Mothers of Feminism: The Story of Quaker Women in America |year=1986 |publisher=Harper & Row |location=San Francisco}}</ref>