Lenapehoking as identified on map in Wikipedia

Before Quakers arrived to settle in the Delaware River valley, a flourishing nation had lived there for centuries on the land known as Lenapehoking, the lands inhabited by the Lenape people. John Fenwick, and later William Penn, hoped and planned that two such different cultures could and would live in peaceful community. What understandings did each group have of the treaties and of their new neighbors? What were the results of their differing expectations? Did later generations honor the agreements of their forebears? Where and what proved to be stress points?

Nancy V. Webster will explore the historical situation between Quakers and the Lenape from the time of Fenwick’s Colony to the formation of the first standing committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, the 1795 Indian Committee.

Leader(s)

Christopher Densmore is the Curator of Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College. He has a strong interest in Quaker history and Quaker involvement with Native Americans. He is author of Red Jacket: Iroquois Diplomat and Orator (Syracuse University Press, 1999) and a frequent participant in the Iroquois Studies Conference. He has written a number of articles about Quaker interactions with Native Americans. Chris is also co-editor and co-author of Quaker Cross Currents: 300 Years of the New York Yearly Meetings (Syracuse, 1995) and co-editor of Lucretia Mott Speaks (University of Illinois Press, 2017). Chris has long been involved with the Friends Historical Association and the Conference of Quaker Historians and Archivists and has published articles on the Progressive Friends in Quaker History.

Travel directions to Pendle Hill. Click to view the flyer.