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Conscientious Objectors in the Confederacy: The Quakers of North Carolina

The years of the Civil War were a time of soul searching, mental anguish, and some physical suffering for the southern members of the Society of Friends, almost all of whom were concentrated in North Carolina.1 The same thing is true of other southerners too, but the peculiar beliefs, practices, and attitudes of the Quakers made them especially vulnerable to the ravages of war. One of them summarized their position and explained the main sources of their difficulties by saying, "We had been a Uttle band of believers in peace in the midst of war, of antislavery abolitionists in the heart of slave territory, of hearts almost to a unit loyal to the union in the midst of secession. The way had not been strewn with flowers."2 An inquiry into the wartime experience of this small but significant "band of believers" ought to yield some insight into the nature of conscientious objection, as well as a better understanding of some of the manpower problems and policies of the Confederate government.