Our Beloved Friend: The Life and Writings of Anne Emlen Mifflin by Gary B. Nash and Emily M. Teipe

Our Beloved Friend
The Life and Writings of Anne Emlen Mifflin
by Gary B. Nash and Emily M. Teipe
Pennsylvania State University Press, 370 pp, $124.95 hardcover

Our Beloved Friend: The Life and Writings of Anne Emlen Mifflin resurrects the life and work of a neglected but significant Pennsylvania Quaker leader. Born in 1755 to a wealthy family, Anne Emlen came of age during the Revolutionary era. As a young woman, Emlen took advantage of the social engagements of her class but by 1780 had taken a religious turn. Adopting plain dress and language, she took Quaker testimonies against war taxes seriously and through her writings documented her spiritual progress and reform activism.

Emlen’s religious leadership expanded after her 1788 marriage to Warner Mifflin, who was well known for his antislavery agitation. After her husband’s death in 1798, she continued her work as a traveling minister as well as a reformer in the areas of education, temperance, abolitionism and Indian rights. Her activism portended the involvement of Friends in reform movements of the antebellum era. In 1795 she and Mary Berry were the first women to appear before a state legislature to petition for the end of slavery in Maryland. She presaged the Free Produce Movement of the early 19th century when she called on fellow Friends to boycott the purchase of material dyed with indigo.

Nash and Teipe’s thoroughly researched book enhances our knowledge of this female leader and her reform experience in early America. Comprised in three parts, Our Beloved Friend encompasses an introduction and five chapters describing Anne’s life from birth to death; her writings on religion, pacifism, abolitionism and Indigenous issues; some of her letters; and images relevant to her life and work.

Janet Moore Lindman
Rowan University