Revivalist Friends and the Second Quaker Explosion
July 1, 2025
By Paul N. Anderson
Artist unknown, “Indiana Yearly of Friends 1844,” 1844. 8″ x 11″, lithograph.
A Look at the Historic Divisions Among Friends
As I have traveled amongst unprogrammed Friends in America, the United Kingdom, Africa, and Asia, I often get asked such questions as: “So just who are those Evangelical Quakers?” or “How can Friends churches that use pastors and that have music be considered Quaker?” These are good questions if unprogrammed silence is seen as the foundational basis of the Friends movement.
But maybe silence shouldn’t be considered the default. In The People Called Quakers, Elton Trueblood asks whether Quakers should be considered “an exceedingly mild and harmless people, largely given to silence, totally unaggressive, with a religion that is neither evangelical in content nor evangelistic in practice.” To this he responds that this image is “erroneous at almost every point.”
The first generation of Friends was the most dynamic religious movement in the British Isles during the entire seventeenth century. Four anti-Quaker laws were passed by the British government between 1661 and 1665 to put a damper on this explosive movement. They were turning the world upside down, as historian Christopher Hill noted. In addition to the dynamic preaching of George Fox, Edward Burrough was called a “Son of Thunder” (as the apostles James and John are in Mark 3:17), and Francis Howgill declared:
The Kingdom of Heaven did gather us and catch us all, as in a net, and his heavenly power at one time drew many hundreds to land. We came to know a place to stand in and what to wait in; and the Lord appeared daily to us, to our astonishment, amazement and great admiration, insomuch that we often said one unto another with great joy of heart: “What, is the Kingdom of God come to be with men? And will he take up his tabernacle among the sons of men, as he did of old?”
Is silence and volunteer service the bases for the Quaker movement? Are these activities creating space for encountering the Divine Presence and spreading the good news of the Present Christ—the universal Light (John 1:9)—throughout the world? Revivalist Friends would affirm the latter.
Huge Diversity among Friends
How do we all think about what it means to be a Friend in the twenty-first century? Approximately 80 percent of the over 700,000 Quakers worldwide descend from Revivalist Friends, and yet, a huge diversity exists among Quakers in the United States alone.
For instance, modern historian Thomas Hamm identified a number of distinct Friends groups just in the state of Ohio in his 2003 book Quakers in America. It’s gotten even more fractured in the following decades:Evangelical Friends Church-Eastern Region is the largest. It has pastoral churches and is a member of Evangelical Friends Church International.
Wilmington Yearly Meeting has pastoral churches and belongs to Friends United Meeting (FUM).
Indiana Yearly Meetings also has pastoral meetings but withdrew from FUM in 2023.
The New Association of Friends is largely pastoral and a member of FUM.
Lake Erie and Ohio Valley Yearly Meetings are made up of unprogrammed (non-pastoral) meetings; they are members of Friends General Conference (FGC)
Ohio Yearly Meeting is Christ-centered, unprogrammed. It is one of three Conservative yearly meetings, which don’t have formal affiliations or a uniting body.
Some newer meetings comprise a non-organized group of unaffiliated Friends.
To add further confusion, the Orthodox–Hicksite splits among Friends, originating in 1827–1828, created divisions between Friends in five yearly meetings: Philadelphia, New England, New York, Baltimore, and Canadian. Resulting from the reconciling mission of Rufus Jones, these yearly meetings rejoined in the 1940s and 1950s. As a result, some of them have dual membership in FGC and FUM, which results in both the joys of fellowship and also the frustrations of differences.
As a result, when Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) hosts gatherings of diverse Friends groupings anywhere in the world, the cross-cultural shock can be disorienting and even traumatizing for all. Back to the earlier question, though: how could pastoral and Evangelical Friends have emerged from the historic Quaker movement, which met on the basis of quiet waiting on the leadings and promptings of the Holy Spirit?
The answer lay in Quaker participation and leadership in the Revivalist Movement of the mid-to-late-nineteenth century in North America. The Third Great Awakening had a huge impact on Christianity in North America and around the world, and Quakers were leaders in that movement. Not only did Methodists and Baptists influence Friends, but Friends, in turn, also influenced them.
Quaker Antecedents of Revivalism
While unprogrammed Friends might question the “Quakerness” of programmed and Revivalist Friends, Evangelical Friends see a number of robust continuities with early Friends.
First, what Trueblood describes as the “Quaker Explosion” (1652–1691) saw the growth of the Friends movement to 50,000 within the first decade and to as many as 100,000 by the turn of the century. Revivalist Friends simply claim to be following in the wake of George Fox, Edward Burrough, Margaret Fell, Francis Howgill, Mary Dyer, Robert Barclay, Mary Fisher, and Isaac Penington.
Second, the traveling ministries of George Fox and other first-generation Friends were replicated by later Friends—notably John Woolman, Stephen Grellet, Deborah Darby, William Savery, and Joseph John Gurney—laying a precedent for Friends traveling in ministry during the Third Great Awakening (1850s–1920s). It was during this time that the Revivalist Friends movement developed, as Quaker leaders spoke at meetings throughout the U.S. Midwest and further westward in North America.
Third, as George Fox and early Friends basically knew the Bible by heart and most ministry in meetings consisted of expansions upon memorized passages of Scripture (I’ve found over 40 overlooked biblical citations in the historic Friends peace testimony delivered to Charles II by Margaret Fell), the Revivalist Quaker movement recovered a focus on reading the Bible for inspiration and guidance, and also for teaching and preaching. This followed the organizing of Bible societies by Friends, particularly in London and Philadelphia Yearly Meetings.
Fourth, Quaker traveling ministries not only involved appeals for spiritual renewal, they also tended to address social concerns, which called for meaningful repentance and change. Fox and first-generation Friends called for integrity and changed lives; Woolman challenged the owning of slaves; and Grellet called for prison reform and more humane treatment of the imprisoned. When the British Quaker Joseph John Gurney traveled to America (1837–1840), one of his primary concerns was for America to follow Barbados in the emancipation of slaves a few years earlier in 1834. He met with Senator Henry Clay, President Martin Van Buren, and members of Congress to appeal for such. If they would have heeded his counsel, the nation might have averted the Civil War.
Fifth, Quakers worked for a century or more with other Christians to champion the abolition of slavery. William Penn had opened his colony Pennsylvania to conscientious dissidents, pietists, and pacifists of Europe. Later, in the nineteenth century, Quaker women, including Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Laura Smith Haviland organized some of the first women’s rights conventions (Margaret Hope Bacon rightly called them the “mothers of feminism”).
Revivalist Influences upon Quakers
In their cooperation with other believers in abolishing slavery, championing women’s rights, and religious education, Quakers influenced other Christians and were also influenced by them. For example, in 1835, during the later stages of the Second Great Awakening, Presbyterian minister Charles Grandison Finney joined the faculty of the newly founded Oberlin Collegiate Institute, now Oberlin College. He began holding revival meetings in a tent, as there was no church yet in town. Moved by his own transformative conversion experience and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Finney not only preached salvation and sanctification, but he also advocated against slavery and championed women’s rights and equal education for women and Blacks.
Finney was also active along with Quakers in the Underground Railroad, so it’s no surprise that the Ohio branch of the Quaker Updegraff family was close to the Finneys and other revivalists. Such innovations as camp meetings, evening prayer meetings, new hymnology, Sunday Schools, Bible studies, and the circuit-riding ministries of Methodists led into the Third Great Awakening. As Quakers moved westward, they found themselves engaging other fellow believers, with influence going both ways.
In addition to Joseph John Gurney, a number of other notable Friends traveled in ministry amongst Friends in America, including Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree, Robert Lindsey, William Forster, and Stephen Grellet. Thus, spoken ministry grew among Friends in the mid-nineteenth century, and people were encouraged to minister more frequently if they felt led, leaving behind more silent practices.
Pivotally, things changed with several outpourings of spiritual visitation, which brought about authentic revival. In 1860 at Indiana Yearly Meeting, young adult friends were longing for a deeper spiritual experience. Requirements of plain clothing and the forbidding of singing seemed oppressive to them, and the youth were desiring authentic spiritual experience. On their behalf, three respected ministers (Sybil Jones of Maine, Lindley Murray Hoag of Iowa, and Rebecca Updegraff of Ohio) asked for an evening meeting with the young adults, at which older and established Friends were asked to remain silent. Over a thousand attended (other estimates range upwards to 3,000), and the meeting went from 7:00 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.
There was no order of worship: people simply spoke and prayed as they felt led, desiring to give their lives totally to Christ and to be filled with spiritual empowerment to live a life of holiness that was pleasing to God. In Mark Minear’s Richmond 1887, he quotes Rhoda Coffin:
The solemnity of the Meeting could only be felt—it could not be written; there was no form, no leader. . . . When I declared I was His, and He was my Savior; and repeated the text, “Let others do as they may, I will serve the Lord,” I was loosed and set free, and I came out of that Meeting with a heart full of love to God, and a spirit to do his will.
Some 150 young adults who had spoken in that gathering met with Sybil Jones the following day. As with the explosiveness of early Friends, spiritual renewal happens most powerfully among the young, and similar movements of the Spirit occurred at Ohio, Iowa, and Kansas Yearly Meetings.
Awareness of such societal evils of slavery, violence, alcohol abuse, and immorality were seen as personal issues requiring convincement and renewal. Unless the hearts of individuals are transformed, hope for societal change is impossible. Along these lines, the Wesleyan emphasis upon a second work of grace—salvation followed by sanctification—fit entirely well with Robert Barclay’s teachings on perfection in his 1678’s Apology for the True Christian Divinity. (See also Carole Spencer’s current work on holiness.) Not only does the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit redeem the believer from the penalty of sin; it also liberates us from sin’s power, giving victory over selfishness and temptation.
Interrupted by the Civil War, revivals among Friends in the U.S. Midwest picked up again in 1867, when Friends at Walnut Ridge Meeting in Rush County, Indiana, and elsewhere began holding evening meetings reading tracts and doing Bible study and seeking spiritual renewal. This led to holding Sunday-evening meetings in which people prayed for revival. Friends had now begun using a “mourners’ bench” inviting people to come forward for prayer and commitment or recommitment to Christ. These public decisions for Christ drew new believers into membership who became convinced Friends, and this was a factor of authentic spiritual renewal.
Beyond Indiana, revival was also breaking out in such meetings as Mount Pleasant, Salem, and Damascus in Ohio; Bear Creek, Bangor, and West Branch in Iowa; and a number of meetings in Kansas. Some of the most noted revivalist preachers included Dougan Clark of Maine and David Brainerd Updegraff, who had become fast friends during a year of study together at Haverford College. Other prominent Quaker evangelists included John Henry Douglas (also of Maine); Allan Jay; Nathan and Esther Frame; and other women ministers: Elizabeth Comstock, Sarah Smith, and Caroline Talbot.
These more expressive developments among Revivalist Friends brought severe criticism from Conservative (Wilburite) Friends, and a number of further separations followed. As the Spirit moved among Revivalist Friends, meetings grew and required more concerted efforts to provide pastoral care for their communities. According to Walter Williams, Luke Woodard was the first Quaker pastor.
With the second Quaker explosion between 1860 and 1880, the numerical center of U.S. Quakerism shifted from the Northeast to the Midwest. A good deal of this development was a factor of Quaker migrations westward, but literally thousands of “seekers” were again drawn into Friends membership, which by now had become more integrated with other traditions in the Revivalist movement: Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and newer movements emerging within the Second and Third Great Awakenings.
According to Elbert Russell’s History of Quakerism, between 1837 and 1877, the number of Friends members in Orthodox yearly meetings went from 10,000 to 4,000 in New England Yearly Meeting; from 8,686 to 5,000 in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting; from 11,000 to 4,000 in New York Yearly Meeting; and from 18,000 to 4,000 in Ohio Yearly Meeting. Indiana Yearly Meeting (30,000) split in 1858 into Indiana Yearly (18,000) and Western Yearly Meeting (12,000). New yearly meetings were founded westward before 1877 in Iowa (9,000) and Kansas (4,000).
With movements westward and Revivalist Friends engaging more broadly with other Christians, several of the traditional Quaker testimonies underwent change. Plain dress and speech fell by the wayside, although modesty of dress continued; uses of hymns and sermons became commonplace, although times of open worship continued; Bible study, Sunday schools, and prayer meetings were added to the weekly routines of programmed Friends, and these ventures were bolstered by the establishment of Quaker colleges and Bible schools.
One of the most divisive issues, though, was liberty of conscience regarding the outward ordinances of baptism and communion, led by Ohio’s David Brainerd Updegraff (a direct descendent of some of the Dutch Friends of Germantown Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), who became a committed believer in a Methodist revival meeting. That was felt to be a bridge too far by many Friends, and Joseph Bevan Braithwaite organized the Richmond Conference of 1887, where many Quaker Revivalist leaders (Ohio and Philadelphia Yearly Meetings did not send delegates) came to unity around the Richmond Declaration, which clarified a number of Friends testimonies, supported by biblical and theological references.
Friends Nowadays, Negotiating Diversity
As things developed over the next several decades, the various groupings of Friends in North America developed their own larger associations. Hicksite Friends organized in 1900 as Friends General Conference. Five Years Meeting began in 1902 and is now known as Friends United Meeting, comprised of yearly meetings around the world. Conservative Friends have held periodic gatherings but have no uniting bodies. After Oregon, Kansas, and Rocky Mountain Yearly Meetings withdrew from FYM/FUM between 1926 and 1956, they formed the Association of Evangelical Friends in 1947 and are now called Evangelical Friends Church International; they have been by joined Southwest Friends and Alaska Yearly Meeting, as well as a number of African and Latin American yearly meetings.
Given the huge diversity among Friends worldwide, and in North America in particular, I hope this overview of how pastoral and Evangelical Friends emerged over the last century and a half can facilitate a capacity to attend to “that of God” in the other, especially among other groups of Friends. And as movements enhance greater familiarity with the stories and words of our founders, may they provide bridges between the diverse branches of a rich heritage, helping us negotiate diversity within the larger Society of Friends and facilitate Friends witness today and in the future.
D. Elton Trueblood, The People Called Quakers (1966).
Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution (1972).
Francis Howgill, “Testimony Concerning Edward Burrough,” in Works of Edward Burrough (1662).
Thomas Hamm, Quakers in America (2003).
Carole Spencer, Holiness: The Soul of Quakerism (2007)
Arthur O. Roberts, Through Flaming Sword: The Legacy and Life of George Fox (1959).
Walter R. Williams, The Rich Heritage of Quakerism (1962)
J. Brent Bill, David B. Updegraff: Quaker Holiness Preacher (1983).
Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution (1972).
Francis Howgill, “Testimony Concerning Edward Burrough,” in Works of Edward Burrough (1662).
Thomas Hamm, Quakers in America (2003).
Carole Spencer, Holiness: The Soul of Quakerism (2007)
Arthur O. Roberts, Through Flaming Sword: The Legacy and Life of George Fox (1959).
Walter R. Williams, The Rich Heritage of Quakerism (1962)
J. Brent Bill, David B. Updegraff: Quaker Holiness Preacher (1983).
