Vermont and the Underground Railroad, Quaker Advocates Against Slavery But For BDS Against Israel

 Nadene Goldfoot                                         

  The Rokeby Museum about the Underground Railroad in Ferrisburg, Addison, Vermont--most freedom seekers that came to Rokeby simply met someone that knew the Rowland and Rebecca Robinsons who were Quakers. Vermont's Constitution was the first in the country to abolish slavery, and many Vermonters assisted runaway slaves throughout the pre-Civil War period

If you’re a black person and you’re living in Vermont in the 1790s, you could own property, you could take a white person to court, but at the very same time, you could be kidnapped or re-enslaved.”

Professor Harvey Amani Whitfield of U. of Vermont wrote a book about this, called The Problem of Slavery in Early Vermont, 1777-1810. It came out in 2014. During a VPR interview he did in January of that year, Amani said that even though abolition was enshrined in Vermont’s constitution, “it wasn’t enforced. Owners of slaves just sort of subverted it, ignored it.”

Plus, there was a loophole that allowed people to continue to enslave children. Amani found examples of this kind of stuff all the way up to 1810. So that’s one thing: Slavery had a foothold here. Another thing to know is that Vermonters had complicated views about all this. Here’s Vermont historian Ray Zirblis:

“Lots of people, I think, of good will in the antebellum period are on the fence. Slavery is reprehensible, but the destruction of the union would be a terrible outcome. So people we would consider, they would say, ‘gentlemen of property and standing,’ upstanding members of the community, are very often on the side of a more temperant middle ground.”     

My Robinsons lived in Windsor and Orange Counties, Vermont, neighbors of Addison.  

This is not my family of Robinsons but another from England who settled in Rhode Island and were Quakers, They trace back to Rowland Robinson b: 1754 from Cumberland, England.  They came close to mine, living in Ferrisburgh, Addison, Vermont.

Jane Williamson, the director of Rokeby Museum of Ferrisburgh, Addison, Vermont  in Shelburne of the Shelburne Museum tells that Rokeby was the home and sheep farm of the Robinson family, who were Quakers.  Shelburne Museum is a museum of art, design, and Americana located in Shelburne, Chittenden, Vermont, United States. Over 150,000 works are exhibited in 39 exhibition buildings, 25 of which are historic and were relocated to the museum grounds. It is located on 45 acres (18 ha) near Lake Champlain.   

Thomas Robinson, a Newport Quaker merchant, was a key advocate for abolition of slavery both within and outside of the Society of Friends from the 1770s. As a young man starting out in business in the 1750s, however, Robinson sent a number of ships to Africa to procure slaves for sale in the West Indies, stopping the practice just as the Quaker community came to prohibit the trade among its members. Robinson’s father, Deputy Governor William Robinson, owned a large slave-worked plantation in South County. Robinson’s father-in-law, colony Treasurer and Newport merchant Thomas Richardson, also held slaves, and served as Presiding Clerk of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends from 1729 to 1760.  

Robinson’s shift from slave-trader to abolitionist provides a lens for looking at how and why the Quaker community, after tolerating slave-holding and even slave-trading among its members for 100 years, came to view slave-trading and slave-owning as contrary to their Christian testimony. The talk about it was held on March 9, 2011 saying that it would draw on the extensive Robinson and Richardson family papers held by the Newport Historical Society, as well as Quaker meeting records, probate documents, and genealogical materials.                                  

This is the son of the abolitionist, Rowland Thomas Robinson.  It's Roland Evans Robinson the famous artist born in 1833.  American farmer, artist, and author. He is best known as the author of several novels and short stories that captured details about life in rural Vermont, including attitudes towards Native Americans, African Americans, and foreigners, as well as the pre-Civil War regional differences of the northern and southern states.

Four generations of the family lived on this property; one of those generations featured a husband and wife named Rowland and Rachel. They were abolitionists, and they sheltered or aided dozens of fugitive slaves here on the farm in the 1830s and ‘40s.     Descendants of ROLAND Thomas and Rachel Robinson, Quakers

1   ROLAND Thomas Robinson b: September 21, 1796 in Ferrisburg, Addison, Vermont d: August 25, 1879 in Ferrisburg, Addison, Vermont Age at death: 82

. +Rachel b: October 01, 1799 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania d: February 03, 1862 in Ferrisburg, Addison, Vermont Age at death: 62

.. 2   Thomas Richardson Robinson b: 1822 in Ferrisburg, Addison, Vermont d: October 24, 1854 in Ferrisburg, Addison, Vermont Age at death: 32 est.

...... +Charlotte Satterley b: in Ferrisburg, Addison, Vermont d: in Agawam, Massachusetts

....... 3   William Gilpin Robinson b: November 28, 1850 in Ferrisburg, Addison, Vermont d: March 01, 1905 in East Freetown, Bristol, Massachusetts Age at death: 54

.. 2   George Gilpin Robinson b: March 05, 1825 in Ferrisburg, Addison, Vermont d: November 03, 1894 in Ferrisburg, Addison, Vermont Age at death: 69

.. 2   Anne Henry Minturn Robinson b: March 04, 1827 in Ferrisburg, Addison, Vermont d: May 08, 1917 in shoreham, Addison, Vermont Age at death: 90

...... +Lloyd Minturn

....... 3   Rowland R. Minturn b: 1848 in New York d: April 07, 1898 in Green Bay, Wisconsin Age at death: 50 est.

.......... +Charlotte Birgitt b: 1858 in Ohio

.. 2   Rowland Evans Robinson b: May 1833 in Ferrisburg, Addison, Vermont d: October 15, 1900 in Ferrisburg, Addison, Vermont Age at death: 67 est.

...... +Anna Stevens b: August 25, 1841 in Montpelier, Washington, Vermont d: August 02, 1925 in Ferrisburg, Addison, Vermont Age at death: 83

....... 3   Rachel Robinson b: July 28, 1878 in Ferrisburg, Addison, Vermont d: February 12, 1919 in Manhattan, New York Age at death: 40

.......... +Robert France Elmer b: July 30, 1871 in New York d: November 16, 1936 in Bronx, New York m: October 17, 1911 in Ferrisburg, Addison, Vermont Age at death: 65 m: October 17, 1911 in Ferrisburg, Addison, Vermont

....... 3   Rowland Thomas Robinson b: 1882

....... 3   Mary Robinson b: 1884

Rokeby’s connection to the Underground Railroad is so legit that the museum is a National Historic Landmark. But Jane says that people come here looking for a different story than the one the museum actually tells.

“The lantern in the window, the hidden room, the loose floorboard,” Jane says. She adds that people are kind of obsessed with hiding places — like in Brandon — because there’s this popular image of slave-catchers prowling around the countryside, looking for fugitives. But there’s no evidence that that happened in Vermont. We’re too far north.

The Quaker movement to help the Blacks was a wonderful move.  Today, their zeal has gone into helping the Palestinians in the BDS movement which is against Jews and Israel. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is a Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel.  This goes against helping a worthwhile cause by aiding and abetting their enemy, Hamas Terrorists,  who lead the Palestinians in Gaza. 

Caption: BDS supporters hold a protest against Israel in South Africa's Gauteng province recently

(photo credit: BDS SOUTH AFRICA)

Quaker support for BDS is long standing and deeply founded in the denomination’s history. Since the 1960s, we have seen the growth of “scholar warriors” who have given up the ideal of impartial scholarship for activism. As Quakerism is about doing rather than praying, their institutions created mission-oriented avenues that are today chiefly focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

And when it comes to Jews, the Quakers increasingly share the supersessionist theology of some American Protestant denominations, a theological justification for deemphasizing the Jewish connection to the Holy Land and deriding the Jews as a people forsaken by God.

 Zionism presented a direct challenge to supersessionist theology, and many Protestant missionary and aid groups in the Middle East opposed the movement and supported Arab nationalism.

 The Quakers, for the most part, stayed neutral on the subject, although Quaker institutions in Palestine itself and individual Palestinian Quakers became leading advocates of Arab nationalism and fervent anti-Zionists.                             

The Muslims decided in 1967, after their attempt to wipe out Israel in their 3rd war against Israel and losing, to never have peace with this small Jewish state.  The 1967 Arab League summit was held on August 29 in Khartoum as the fourth Arab League Summit in the aftermath of the Arab defeat by Israel in the Six-Day War, and is famous for its Khartoum Resolution known as "The Three No's"; No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel.          

The Abraham peace accords are changing that with over 4 countries signing on and being at peace, joining Egypt and Jordan as well as planning programs together.  The BDS movement and the Quakers have not succeeded in driving Israel into the sea.  

Resource:

https://wwwrobinsongenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/10/it-was-said-that-most-of-rhode-island.html

https://rokeby.org/about/the-robinson-family/

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/quaker-activists-584222

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott,_Divestment_and_Sanctions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Arab_League_summit#:~:text=The%201967%20Arab%20League%20summit,Israel%2C%20no%20negotiations%20with%20Israel.