The Keithians

[Terrance Flaherty]

in the 1690s George Keith formed a separatist movement called the
Christian Quakers which strongly emphasized the life and teachings of
the historical Jesus. Keith--one of the earliest and most effective
"publishers of Truth"--had
emigrated to East Jersey in 1685, and then to Philadelphia in 1689,
where he became the first headmaster of the Quaker school (from which
both Friends Select and William Penn Charter claim descent). Though
previously he had written some thirty books and tracts defending basic
Quaker beliefs, he had increasing doubts about those beliefs and also
about the structure of governance within Monthly Meetings. Accordingly,
he began a campaign to establish deacons and elders as the guardians of
thetheological views of those who spoke in meetings for worship. He also
proposed that all members be
required to affirm a confession of faith or creed. After being rebuffed
by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting(and then by London Yearly Meeting as
well), he established the Christian Quakers, with some fifteen meetings.
This movement did not last very long; by 1700, it had all but
disappeared, and Keith himself had returned to England and joined the
Anglican Church. But it clearly anticipates one of the tendencies
of American Friends in the nineteenth century, which has been labeled
(or perhaps, mislabeled) the evangelical.


The Keithian argument stemmed directly form Quaker thought, Fox and
Edmundson. Fox called all men to be a Christ and Edmundson, well, he was
not as patient as most Quakers on this issue, he preached that all
Christians, Black and White, Quaker and Catholic, should do everything
in their power to *Free* slaves immediately. Not after two years as Fox
advised. Not that Quakers should not buy more slaves or sell them or
ship them, but should Free them. And a new idea emerges from these from
the Apostate Keith, an idea that Quakers will turn to again and again in
the struggle without realizing that Keith was its author; he asserted
that slaves were "prize goods," that is, captives of war and theft of
the highest nature. Quakers denied themselves the use of ordinary prizes
of war as inconsistent with the Fox Peace Testimony, the Quaker
testimony of peace, and so slaves should not be kept. 

http://www.africana.com/Facts/bl_fact_221.htm