A Thanks to Arch Street Meeting House

“No Such Thing As Wasted Knowledge”: A Thanks to Arch Street Meeting House

by Denis Long

When I first interviewed to be an intern here at Arch Street, I was, admittedly, cracking jokes left and right, but surprisingly, that caught the eye of the people at Arch Street. They saw that I was willing to put myself out there and just say whatever, to which they suggested I host a podcast about Quaker history. I had never hosted any kind of podcast, aside from participating in a side project with a friend of mine freshman year of college, and I honestly don’t listen to podcasts, with the exception of a few Dungeons & Dragons live shows, but those are nothing like what I was proposed with. I had no experience with podcasts, so, as any other reasonable person would, I said “yes, absolutely.”

Now, with two installments of our “Untold Stories” series live on the Arch Street website, and a third soon coming, I now have experience in the podcasting world! It was, in all honesty, a blast talking with all of our guests. They were all incredibly knowledgeable and very easy to speak with which led to some great conversations and insight provided by people that are truly professionals in the world of history. Working with Rachel Jonas and Kayla D’Oyen of Arch Street Meeting House was great, too. They are two of the sweetest people I’ve ever met and are always getting business done, this podcast would have been nothing without them. I also want to take this time to thank you, the listeners, for indulging yourself in these, in fact, untold stories of Quaker history. There is a saying in my family often quoted by my father, “there is no such thing as wasted knowledge,” and while that may not apply to others, I thoroughly believe that even just listening and absorbing all types of knowledge has worth it. What’s the point of having the ability to learn if not to use it to its full potential?

Thus, I followed my advice, and have been using a fair amount of the research I did as a part of this exercise in the realm of podcasting as a part of my capstone paper for my undergraduate degree. This paper focuses on the Orthodox-Hicksite Schism of 1827, its effect on Quaker antislavery activists, and its role as a focal point of the many years of development in the realm of Quaker response to the institution of slavery and approaches to abolition. It’s a little long-winded, I won’t lie, but it’s an interesting dive into how various historical developments can cause ripple effect upon ripple effect and create new things as far as entire religious groups. For further reading on the subject, I highly recommend Ryan P. Jordan’s “Slavery and the Meetinghouse: The Quakers and the Abolitionist Dilemma 1820-1865,” as it provides great historical insight into the Schism and its effect in the antebellum period, while some of the further reading from our first podcast with Marcus Rediker, as well as his book, “The Fearless Benjamin Lay,” talk a lot about Quakers and antislavery in the Colonial and Revolutionary eras. I would like to once more extend my gratitude to Arch Street Meeting House and our wonderful listeners. This was a wonderful experience and I hope I can someday do something like this again no matter where it may be. I hope that I helped introduce you to new perspectives on not only Quaker history but the field of history as a whole. History is, in my opinion, crucial to understand, and I hope what you, the listeners, and myself have learned will be used for the betterment of our world.