The Conference of Quaker Historians and Archivists will hold its twentieth biennial conference at Westtown School in West Chester, Pennsylvania, June 16 – 18, 2014. The conference invites proposals for papers on any aspect of Quaker history. Send a one-page abstract including proposed paper title, a one-page vita, and a separate cover letter detailing anticipated funding sources, if accepted, to: John Anderies ([email protected]). The deadline for proposals is December 6, 2013.
Oh, so many possibilities, such as Francis Daniel Pastorius and Quaker legal thought or George Fox' legal thought for that matter. I probably don't have the courage to attempt a paper on Pastorius' views on legal history -- which one might try to reconstruct out of the books on legal history in his library -- but that would be a ton of fun to try. (The reason I lack the courage is, I guess, two-fold. First, there are some real language barriers at this point for me looking at 17th century European writing on legal history; and second I'm skeptical of how much I can extrapolate from Pastorius' books to what's in his mind.) Then again, there's some stuff to be said about Caleb Pusey and the Keithian Controversy. Or maybe I should look more closely at Quakers in my new home state of North Carolina -- like the trust that William Gaston wrote for them to hold enslaved people in quasi-freedom. About that I'll have a lot to say in Oklahoma City next week.
The image is of the Concord Quaker Meeting in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
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