The Quakers Trivia Quiz

Answer: George Fox

In 1647 George Fox broke with the dominant Anglican Church and began a long preaching career that was beset with persecution and imprisonment. The simplicity of his beliefs attracted both adherents and harassment. Essentially, he taught that God's spirit was in everyone and could speak to each individual and that the tapestry of formal elaborate worship was not the intent of God. Hope sprang when Cromwell deposed the monarchy but Quakers were disappointed, as they were during the Restoration. When a judge referred to them as 'quakers' Fox is reported as replying (with more fire than tact) that "he told a tormenting judge he should tremble at the word of the Lord."

Quaker web sites state that the Friends do not dress like the man on the Quaker Oats box nor do they address each other with 'thee' or 'thou'. Quakers claim a different tradition than Amish, Anabaptists, Shakers or Puritans.

Answer: Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover, who had a life long career as an humanitarian, came to presidency at one of the trying times for the country in history. Both his parents were Quakers and he attended Friends Pacific Academy (now George Fox University). In 1929 the stock market crashed creating the highest unemployment rate to date. Crime was rampant in the nation, tied to the Prohibition Act. Presidential leadership, and governmental intervention, were impotent.

After his defeat in 1932, Hoover kept a low profile but from time to time flirted with the political process. He was frequently mentioned as an alternative Republican candidate for president but was never selected. Among his many humanitarian tasks was to head a program to feed 3.5 million children in post-war Europe. In 1947 he was appointed by Harry Truman to head the Hoover Commission to identify inefficiencies and deficits in government, a task he continued under the Eisenhower administration.

Answer: William Penn

Penn became a Quaker at 22 when he began to attend Quaker meetings. He suffered some of the same abuses as earlier Quakers from the Anglicans, as well as the Puritans. Later he became a friend and follower of George Fox.

At heart, Penn was an real estate entrepreneur. An over simplification would be that he got the Duke of York to cede lands to him that included the present state of Delaware and much of New Jersey. Later, by promising King Charles II that he would make land for the nuisance Quakers in America, he obtained control of what is now Pennsylvania in a more than generous gift based partly on a debt the crown owed his father.

Penn originally named the area New Wales then Sylvania. Charles II called it Pennsylvania in honor of Penn's father.

Penn was also a philosopher of some note issuing pamphlets occasionally on religious, social and moral issues of the day,

Answer: Julian Bond

Julian Bond grew up in a home that had an activist atmosphere. W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, and others visited their home. His early education was at George School, a private Quaker preparatory school near Newtown, PA. He attended Morehouse University, an all black college, distinguished by its long list of Black achievers. Bond served 20 years in the Georgia State Legislature, in spite of several attempts to gerrymander his district. He was often a guest on television news and issue programs. He once hosted "Saturday Night Live".

Although his religious views were private, his education in a Quaker school and his family's activism were profound influences on his life.

Answer: The Hollow Men

Whitman felt the spirit of life within him. His works at that time were considered by many to be salacious and egocentric. Add to that that he wrote in free verse that ran counter to traditional poetry. Whitman left home at eleven and plied many trades, including being a printer's devil on a paper edited by Mark Twain. During the Civil War he volunteered as a nurse. He practiced no formal religion but was guided by his inner self. Some scholars believe he emerged as a Deist.

"The Hollow Men" is by T.S.Eliot that ends with the famous lines:

"This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper."

Answer: French Revolution

Thomas Paine was born in 1737 son of Joseph Pain, or Paine, a Quaker,and immigrated to the American Colonies, under the encouragement of Benjamin Franklin, in time for the American Revolution. His pamphlet, "Common Sense"(1776) led John Adams to say "Without the pen of the author of 'Common Sense', the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain."

He moved to France in 1790 and became part of that revolution. In spite of not knowing French, he continued to write pamphlets and was elected to the French National Convention. Paine became a divisive presence. Robespierre was one of his political enemies. With the publication of "The Age of Reason"(1794) he called into question the role of religion in government, thus providing a platform for both Christians and the political establishment to disavow him.
In England printers were punished for distributing his writings.

In 1803 he returned to the United States and found that he was no longer the darling of the Federalists. He died in 1809, forgotten and ignored. Quakers would not allow him to be buried in their graveyard.

One critic wrote of Paine as "a corsetmaker by trade, a journalist by profession, and a propagandist by inclination". Probably guilty on two and three but a corsetmaker made heavy ropes for sailing ships, not feminine undergarments.

Answer: Kentucky

Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, woodsman, and frontiersman. After serving as an officer in the American Revolution, he blazed a trail through the Cumberland Gap into what is now known as Kentucky. The trail was followed by countless thousands as the American landscape expanded. Boonesborough, Kentucky was one of the first American settlements west of the Appalachians.

His exploits were magnified in a book by John Filson(1784) that was published abroad and later in the United States. It created a myth, legend, and an image of heroic frontiersmen that exist today. How much is true and how much is fiction might be in the eye of the beholder.

We do know this: Boone lost a fortune on Kentucky land speculation, moved to Missouri and lived quietly until his death in 1820. He continued his land speculation and paid off his Kentucky debts.

Answer: Chocolate

The Cadburys built their factory several miles out of Birmingham and provided low cost housing that not only got them out of the grimy city but included lawns, gardens, and probably most important--fresh air. Employees were included in future planning for the manufacture and marketing of chocolate products. They installed canteens and sport grounds for the workers.

To their faith they created a formal Quaker Study Centre (1903) and endowed the Grove Home School--a Quaker school (1890). Cadbury bought a newspaper that took an independent view of issues.

Answer: Edward R. Murrow

Murrow was born in 1908 to a Quaker family and graduated in 1930 from Washington State University with a major in Speech. He is esteemed by other broadcast journalists for his unrelenting honesty and integrity in reporting. His broadcast career reached popularity in the 1930s as he witnessed the emergence of the Nazi Party in Germany and the threat of Hitler to the free world. The sound of Nazi storm trooper boots could be heard.

By the early 1950s, Murrow had also established a television presence as well. He was appalled at the demagoguery of McCarthy and the web of paranoia that was sweeping the country due to the threat of Communism. The careers of innocent people were threatened due to undocumented accusations of Communist affiliations. Murrow, following good journalistic guidelines, used excerpts from McCarthy's own speeches and proclamations to criticize the senator and point out episodes where he had contradicted himself. Murrow and Fred Friendly paid for their own newspaper advertisement on their program as they were not allowed to use CBS's monies or logos. McCarthy appeared on the program three weeks later, ducked the issues and exposed himself as a god with feet of clay.

Those of you who remember Edward R. Murrow might recall that he was seldom seen without a cigarette in his hand. He once said he could not go half an hour without one. His three pack a day habit resulted in removal of one lung and his death at 57.

Answer: Dollar

Susan B. Anthony was relentless in her goal of social change. She was at first an abolitionist, then a temperance leader, and an advocate for women's suffrage. She did not live to see the 18th amendment to the constitution that brought alcohol prohibition into law nor the 19th amendment giving voting rights to women for the first time, but her ideas and groundwork made these changes a reality.

The Susan B. Anthony dollar was not successful, not because it honored Anthony but because it was similar in size to the quarter. It was minted from 1979 to 1981 and had a brief revival in 1999. It was replaced with the Eisenhower dollar which did not capture the love of the public either. The Anthony dollar's value has not increased significantly.