Omkring 1674 blev, hvad der nu er det nordlige New Jersey, Georgien og Pennsylvanien i USA, koloniseret af kvækere, herrenhuter og andre kirkesamfund. Frikirkerne begynder missionering blandt indianerne med den puritianske præst, John. Eliot (1603-1690) fra Boston, som en af de første missionærer. Senere i 1682 købte Penn og andre kvækerne det nordlige New Jersey af dets indehaver, og ikke længe efter, gav Hertugen af York Penn, hvad der nu er staten Pennsylvania (med Delaware smidt i), i udledning af en gæld af hertugen til Penn's far
Kolonien New Jerseys forfatning forbød slaveri, dødsstraf og gældsfængsel og anviste, at når en indianer anklages for en forbrydelse, skulle halvdelen af juryen bestå af indianere. Penn sønner og efterfølgere fastholdt ikke hans praksis for omhyggelig retfærdighed i forbindelse med indianerne. I 1737, næsten tyve år efter William Penns dødsfald, lavede hans søn Thomas Penn, der ikke var en kvæker, en traktat med indianerne om køb af jord som strækte sig til en-og-en-halv dag gang. Det var en almindelig metode til opmåling af jord, og blev opfattet som en normal ganghastighed. Men denne gang blev turen taget af to trænede atleter på en rutei, hvorfra underskoven var blevet omhyggeligt ryddet, og løberne var forsynet med pakheste til deres forsyninger og både var klar til at hjælpe dem på tværs af vandløb.
But,
Penn's sons and successors did not uphold his practice of scrupulous fairness in dealing with the Indians. In 1737, nearly twenty years after the death of William Penn, his son Thomas Penn, not a Quaker, made a treaty with the Indians for the purchase of land extending for a distance of one-and-a-half days' walk. This was a common method of measuring land, and was understood to be a normal walking pace. But this time, the walk was taken by two trained athletes, over a path from which the underbrush had been carefully cleared, and the runners were provided with pack horses for their supplies and boats ready to help them across streams. The Indians never forgot this. In the frontier wars, only one instance is recorded in which a Quaker farm was attacked by Indians, and that was the farm of a man complicit in the Walking Purchase.
The Indians of the
Pennsylvania region, regarding themselves as betrayed by those they
had come to trust, allied themselves with the French when the
French and English fought. When the war extended into Pennsylvania,
the Governor (not a Quaker) declared war, and the Quaker members of
the Assembly resigned. [During] the war, they organized "The
Friendly Association for gaining and preserving peace with the
Indians by Pacific Measures." Though they would not pay war
taxes, they assessed themselves a greater sum to be used in
compensating the Indians for past injuries, including the "Walking
Purchase."
“The Pennsylvania Assembly had been Quaker-dominated, but
most Quaker members resigned in 1756, as they did not want to hold
office in a land at war. A large part of the Pennsylvania
population, while not Quaker, refused to cooperate in prosecuting
the war”.
Organisationen støttes, ifølge Regen, af
militærskattenægtere: “Friends who had mostly
refused to pay taxes for the war now gave lavishly to this
Organization. They wanted to achieve the desired result and at the
same time demonstrate the adequacy of peaceful
methods”.
Anthony Benezet er,
ifølge Hirst, blandt
de ledende medlemmer af the Friendly Association for Gaining
and Preserving Peace with the Indians by Pacific Measures
oprettet i 1756.
“In 1755, after the hapless Acadians were banned from their
homes by the British Government, he was single-handed a relief
committee for the five hundred quartered in Philadelphia. He build
them houses, collecting clothing and money, and found them
employment… He worked untiringly for the Indians.
Blandt andre medlemmer var kasseren John Reynell og
Christian Frederick Post, a deacon in the church of the Unitas
Fratrum.
Christian Frederick Post lykkes det for, at løse The
French and Indian War i Pennsylvania i 1757.
Frederick Christian Post (fl 1710-1785) was a Moravian missionary,
who spent the greater part if his life in preaching to the Indians
of Pennyslvania and Ohio. He travelled extensively in that area,
and was even used as an official government messenger to the
hostile Indians, among whom he succeeded in securing a kind of
neutrality. His other diplomatic adventures, undertaken during the
struggle for colonial supremacy between the French and English in
America, included a expedition into the area of Fort DuQuesne,
whose French commandant offered a price upon his head, and a trip
to carry news of the treaty of Easton (Oct 1758) and pave the way
for General John Forbes's advance. Post kept several journals
describing his journeys1.
The treaty of Easton in 1758 brought peace between Pennsylvania on
behalf of the Delawares. Both Teddyuscung and Post wanted the
Delawares in the Ohio-Alleghany region to be aware of it, thus the
journey across Northern Pennsylvania, Wallace says, "News of the
peace treaty, which a brave Moravian, Christian Frederick Post,
carried to the Ohio-Alleghany country detached many of the Indians
there from the French". Fort Duquesne fell without a shot being
fired in 1758.
“Even so, no man in that day knwe more about the Indians than Anthony Benezet. He attented all the important treaties of that period; he knew intimatly and confererd often with Christian Frederick Post; Conrad Weiser, Papunhung, Tedyuscung, and other Indian chiefs; he set aside in his will certainb sums as a foundation for the education of Indian children…”2. Arkiv: Moravian Archives, Pennsylvania State Archives ; the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College ; University of London (Library - Senate House).