AML 4213: Journeys to America
Spring 2012

ASHBRIDGE

The capable editorial introduction to Ashbridge in the Journeys volume will fill you in with relevant background to her memoir, but below also are some pertinent points.

QUAKER BACKGROUND

1. The movement was started by George Fox, a shoemaker in England (born in 1624), who took Puritan distrust of institutional encumbrances on a one-to-one relation to God one step further.  Whereas the Winthrop and Bradford Puritan communities saw themselves as (more or less) pure enclaves fleeing the corruption of the big enclave (the Anglican Church in England), Fox says, in effect, no enclave at all will help you conjoin with God.  This doesn’t mean that there were not Quaker communities, but that institutional formalities were regarded with revulsion as an imposition on the soul. Fox said: “God dwells not in the temples made by men.”

2. Instead, Quakers emphasize the living spirit of Christ within … an “inner light.” Immediate communion with God was available to everyone, and not even the Bible was really deemed necessary for immediate revelation. This vexed both civil and religious authorities in the developing colonies, because it was yet another expression of anti-nomianism (which means against-the-law); folks had their ears clipped for such, and Anne Hutchinson (the most famous anti-nomian) was infamous in her day.

3. For Quakers, following one’s conscience, as inspired by Christ within, was paramount, even if this meant challenging government authority or man-made laws. Thus many Quakers were pacifist, against slavery.  Quakers also tended to be radically egalitarian, appealing thus especially to the poor, out-of-work, and others who might have cause to dislike the social status quo.  But it also meant that a man’s authority—over the wife and family—was threatened, since women could speak out when expressing the inner light. Quakers liked to use the familiar “thee” “thou” because it did away with hierarchy of not using “thee” “thou” before one’s superiors.

4. In Ashbridge's day, Quakers were not “quaint” (e.g. Quaker Oaks).  They had a bad reputation, as being on the lunatic fringe, associated with other radical Protestant groups such as "ranters."

5. That said, William Penn, a Quaker of some prominence in England, established Philadelphia (city of brotherly love) in 1690s as a Quaker colony, which by the time of Franklin in the 1740s was no longer Quaker per se.  A reminder: there was a lot of “open” space in the colonies, so you could have Puritan communities, Quaker communities, and non-New England Catholic communities all jostling together, uniting mostly when sharing a common enemy (namely, the Indians).

 ASHBRIDGE REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What are the psychological consequences of having an absent father (is there also, in this story, initially an absent Father?)?  Is it not odd that she calls the true love of her life “the darling of my soul”?  Daddies, lovers, good/bad husbands, soul-satisfaction: it all gets rather mixed up for Ashbridge!

2. Do you think she has a manic-depressive state of mind? Does her "dark night" of the soul sound like clinical depression? Or does it just sound like marital/sexual dissatisfaction?

3. Who is responsible for her bad marriage with the school-master?

4. In what ways does she seem like a "feminist" heroine?  Is it anachronistic for us to label her in that way?

5. Why does she steal some thread at one point?  Linger on this, as it is rather weird. Could it be that she feels the imp of the perverse, a need to rebel/commit acts that will cause guilt in some fashion? Is such behavior little more than teen-age (as it were) “acting out” (you get mad at your parents, and in combined rage/longing go out of your way to irritate them)?

Literary Theory Tip

Note this dialectical sequence:

--a: Ashbridge’s father’s abandoning her and scorning her = anger/guilt/desire for father
--b: Quaker religion = way of revolting against her father
--c: Quaker religion = brings the “Father” within, both an act of independence and submission!

Note how in the above psychodynamic family stuff, psychological stuff (depression), sexual stuff, feminist stuff, & religious stuff all interact. One way of analyzing texts and one way of coming up with complex paper topics is to see how one category affects or is a solution for another: e.g., Rowlandson's crying/insomnia may come from psychological trauma, but she interprets it to herself as religious attentiveness (staying up late, thinking about God).