The Quaker Scout with Martha Catlin

October 6, 2023 from 6:00-7:00 PM

Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House, 9000 Richmond Hwy, Alexandria, VA 22309

Free event, donations appreciated

The Quaker Scout introduces a little-known first-hand account that attests to challenges one antislavery Quaker experienced living among slaveholders in his community’s adopted home at Woodlawn. Author Martha Claire Catlin presents a history of that colony brought into focus by the memoir of Jonathan Roberts, one of the pre-Civil War founders of an antislavery colony and Friends meeting at Woodlawn.

Jonathan Roberts’ narrative provides a compelling account of Secession, Civil War, and Reconstruction in Northern Virginia, from the perspective of a member of the colony that Friends from Northern states had established with the goal of turning the tide of the South toward universal emancipation. The author examines the activist spiritual basis of the Quaker colony’s endeavor to bring about a peaceful end to slavery, and the progressive methods they used to transform the local landscape and agricultural economy. Roberts’ “plain-spoken” testimony reveals the critical contributions of African Americans – enslaved and free – in providing intelligence to Union loyalists; and illustrates how alliances between Friends and freed people furthered Black empowerment, including progress toward educational goals, civic influence, and religious independence from church hierarchies previously dominated by slaveholders.

Books will be available for purchase and signing.