(gentle orchestral music) (bright orchestral music) - [Narrator] This is the great road that passes through North Smithfield, Rhode Island.

At one time, it served as the highway from Providence, Rhode Island, to Worcester, Massachusetts.

Long before the sounds of fast-moving traffic, craftsmen and farmers traveled by horse and carriage between houses, churches, and taverns on this road, and many of these travelers were called Friends.

In Rhode Island, the Society of Friends, or Quakers, played an outsized role in the creation of government, and they worshiped along this road.

Then, the Revolution began.

(dramatic music) No battles were fought here during the War for Independence, but the residents here watched as the local militia would drill, gather arms, and go off to war.

(dramatic music continues) As pacifists, most Quakers refused to fight with either Rebels or Loyalists.

And yet here, among the modest gravestones of Friends Cemetery, we find something unexpected.

(solemn music) Markers of military service next to the names of local Quakers.

This is the story of a community of friends, neighbors, and patriots.

(serene orchestral music) For thousands of years, Native Americans lived in the area they called Woonsocket.

Roger Williams, the first colonial settler of Providence, purchased the land rights for what is now Rhode Island from the Narragansett Tribe.

This included the area natives called Woonsocket.

According to local historians, the name refers to the prominent nearby hill, one of the highest in Rhode Island.

In 1666, three freemen from Providence bought 2,000 acres of land, including Woonsocket Hill, from William Minnion a Native American.

Following King Philip's War, Captain Richard Arnold was the first settler to record property at Woonsocket in 1678.

By the 1700s, many people in Union Village were Quakers.

Today, people use Quaker and Friend interchangeably, but that wasn't always the case.

(dramatic music) In the 1650s, an Englishman named George Fox formed the Society of Friends.

Moved by a vision to lead, "great people to be gathered," Fox called his fellow believers Friends.

- [George] As we traveled, we came near a great hill called Pendle Hill, and I was moved of the Lord to go up to the top of it, which I did with difficulty.

It was so very steep and high.

When I came to the top, I saw the sea bordering upon Lancashire.

From the top of this hill, the Lord let me see in what places he had a great people to be gathered.

- [Narrator] Quakers worship without clergy, ritual, or liturgy.

In a time when ministers usually railed from the pulpit, Friends sat in silence, believing anyone could hear the voice of God within themselves, an "Inner Light".

(light peaceful music) Friends have six core values: simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship.

Worshiping without strict dogma, some found the Friends' radical beliefs and forms of worship alarming, even blasphemous.

To escape persecution, Quakers emigrated to the colonies, and New England was hardly more hospitable.

(dramatic music) Quakers were fined, arrested, and imprisoned, or even banned.

In Boston, four of them were hanged, but Quakers found refuge in Rhode Island.

While Roger Williams did not agree with their beliefs or practices, he was steadfast in his own principle: freedom of religion.

After Quakers arrived in Providence in 1658, they settled on Aquidneck Island and spread across the colony, eventually coming north to the Providence outlands.

(serene music) The first Friends meetinghouse in Providence County was the Providence Preparative Meeting.

Built in 1703 in Louisquisset, now Saylesville, it still stands today as the oldest continuously active Quaker meeting in the country.

(serene music continues) In the early 1700s, Quakers began meeting at the Woonsocket Crossroads, where the Providence-Worcester Road intersected with the Boston-Hartford Road.

Quakers first met in the loft of the old Aldrich Hotchkiss-Thayer house, which later burned in a fire in 1970.

John Arnold sold land for a cemetery and meetinghouse on the Great Road for 10 shillings.

The Friends Cemetery was the First Community Cemetery in what is now North Smithfield and Woonsocket.

And in 1719, Friends built a small meetinghouse just 20 square feet next to that cemetery.

(serene orchestral music) (dramatic music) The colonial legislature created Smithfield, including villages as far south as Central Falls and as far north as Woonsocket Crossroads, which became the main commercial center for the town of Smithfield.

Stagecoach routes that intersected with the Great Road generated much commerce, and Woonsocket Village thrived.

Quakers assumed prominent roles in local and colonial government.

Taverns allowed travelers to share news of current affairs, and locals listened for the sounds of approaching horse-drawn carriages with great anticipation.

By 1737, there were two Smithfield Meetinghouses, the lower being in Saylesville and the upper in Woonsocket.

Queries allowed Quakers, through reflection, to examine their spiritual lives and moral decisions.

While Epistles, read and shared between Quakers, reminded Friends to uphold their virtues, and, in one instance, to stay awake during their meetings.

Male and female elders labored to discern truth and unity about members who needed counsel on moral issues.

They discussed transgressions, including drinking excessively, using profanity, or playing cards.

If counseling failed, some Friends were removed from the meeting.

When it came to slavery, Quakers queried one another and worked to find consensus, and sometimes this meant making difficult decisions about powerful people.

(light dramatic music) Stephen Hopkins, the nine-time governor of Rhode Island and member of the 1774 Continental Congress, led 500 troops in the French and Indian War.

Hopkins had a reputation for being outspoken.

As author of "The Rights of Colonies Examined", Hopkins joined an early protest against the state of British rule, but Hopkins also enslaved at least seven people, and he was urged to free them.

Eventually, he agreed, but when it came to emancipating one woman who was deemed suitable for freedom, Hopkins refused, and was disowned by the Friends in 1773.

That same year, Moses Brown, a Quaker and prominent merchant from Providence, emancipated the people he held in bondage.

Quakers denounced slavery and worked for abolition, but it remained legal in Rhode Island until an Emancipation Act was passed.

Other Friends might be removed for less morally charged actions.

Dr.

Elijah Bartlett, a local Quaker from Slatersville, was separated from meeting due to his, "marriage with a person not in membership."

That person was Elizabeth Slater, a Congregationalist, and daughter of the mill owner, John Slater.

And then there were the Wilkinsons, (gentle instrumental music) who lived among the cherry trees in Smithfield.

During the war, Jeremiah Wilkinson, a widower, watched as his family was slowly excised from the Smithfield Meeting, with his adult children disowned for attending military training, having an illegitimate child, or for following their sister, Jemimah Wilkinson, who became the minister and prophet "Public Universal Friend".

In 1776, after suffering a fever, Jemimah claimed to have died and been reborn as the Public Universal Friend, a gender-neutral spirit solely dedicated to preaching God's word.

Their core teachings included the abolition of slavery, gender equality, and humility.

Through this vision, the Friend believed they were called to preach as God's mouthpiece most vigorously, to the point where, at many meetings, they often were told, and sometimes forced, to sit down.

Due to persecution and harassment, Jemimah Wilkinson and her followers moved to New York, where she died in 1819.

She is buried in an unmarked grave where she lived.

And in 1777, Jeremiah was removed for following his own child in worship, having neglected the attendance of meeting.

By that same year, the War for Independence was well underway, and Quakers were coming under increasing scrutiny for their pacifist principles.

(dramatic orchestral music) The Alarm of 1775 did not move most Quakers to abandon their principle of peace.

They held strong opinions on war.

- [Man] All bloody principles and practices, we, as to our own particular, do utterly deny, with all outward wars and strife and fightings with outward weapons for any end or under any pretense whatsoever, and this is our testimony to the whole world.

- [Narrator] Most of Rhode Island's Friends maintained a firm belief that war was wrong in the sight of God, and that they could have no part in it.

Still, they were required to support the war in other ways.

In 1776, Quakers secured protection with an act allowing, "people of tender consciences" to pay the expense of hiring a person to take their place during militia and Alarm drafts.

Exemptions, in other words, still came with a cost, and if a man refused, the state could confiscate his goods and sell them to raise the money.

For some Quaker men, the answer was not to take up arms at all.

Elisha Thornton worked as an educator for most of his life, and in the eyes of his peers... - [Woman] Did good.

The Friend has ever been distinguished.

His temperance, industry, and frugality have won for him the envy and the respect of the taxpayer, for while he has added much to the wealth of the state, he has never asked for its assistance.

- [Narrator] Despite being of age, Thornton did not serve in the Revolutionary War.

He was granted a religious exemption from the Smithfield Monthly Meeting.

Thornton did not have an easy life, but he grew into a well-liked, well-connected, and passionate educator, principled and dedicated.

The Quaker way must have suited him.

He was a violinist.

He was also keenly sensitive to ridicule and contempt.

Later, Thornton became a Quaker elder.

His melodic leadership made him remarkable.

- [Man] The Friends of Woonsocket could preserve silence during their hours of worship without falling asleep, for his sermons are spoken as poems in blank verse and the rhythmic manner of their delivery, beautiful and impressive beyond description.

- [Narrator] Hundreds of Quaker families lost their personal property.

Friends on British-occupied Aquidneck Island found their neighbors particularly unhelpful, as most were not keen to protect the assets of pacifists, and Moses Brown had a belief of his own.

(light dramatic music) - [Moses] Only Friends of sober lives and conversations, and who are clear in our ancient testimony against war and fighting should get certificates exempting them from war.

Think, dear Friends, how odious you must appear in the sight of the All-Seeing Eye when you meet in order to worship God and when men fall so far short of it.

- [Narrator] In Smithfield, the Quakers were not subject to the same level of British intrusion as the Friends in Newport, but the war was inescapable.

(engine humming) Across the road from the Friends meetinghouse, Quakers could watch the town militia drilling in an open field called Pine Plains.

Later, some soldiers would be buried in that same field.

(somber music) Peleg Arnold, a Quaker, used his home and tavern as an armory and recruiting location, where the looming political affairs of the day were often debated.

Born in Smithfield, Rhode Island, in 1751, Peleg Arnold studied law at Brown University and became an abolitionist.

He served as deputy to the General Assembly of Rhode Island, and as colonel of the Second Regiment of the Providence County Militia.

He was also a Rhode Island delegate to the Continental Congress.

His politics and commerce aligned with his Quaker roots, but his military career most certainly did not.

(somber music) Here in Friends Cemetery, six known veterans from this time are buried.

Walter Allen was a master builder.

(light wind blowing) (solemn instrumental music) Joel Bradford, a father of 12.

John Earl, originally from Portsmouth, was a ship master.

Oliver Mann owned a small farm and lived a long life.

(solemn music continues) James Brayton born enslaved, joined the fight to free his country.

Born in Newport, James Brayton was an enslaved man who was sold to a family in Rehoboth.

When his owner experienced a change in conscience, James was declared free.

Then he came to live in Smithfield with a woman named Lucy.

They lived on the Great Road in their own home, which was kept in the family for generations.

When one of the affidavits on James Brayton's service was challenged, Thomas Buffum of Union Village intervened, declaring Brayton was upright and honest.

He stated that Brayton had worked for his father and knew him to have been a soldier of the Revolution.

These Quakers, who followed their "Inner Light" in a time of war, may have been inspired by Nathanael Greene, a native Rhode Islander, second in command to General George Washington.

(dramatic music) For some, the very notion of a fighting Quaker was not just a contradiction, it was an impossibility.

In 1768, Greene tried to circulate a petition protesting the hated duties imposed by the Townshend Acts.

He also joined in committee to enforce a boycott of British goods.

(flames roaring) After the Burning of the Gaspee, Greene was incensed to find out that he was rumored to be a conspirator.

In a most unpacific manner, Greene threatened to put a hole in his accuser big enough to let the sun shine through, but the actions that really weakened Greene's ties to his local meeting happened the following year.

In 1773, Greene went to a military gathering in Connecticut.

Greene was asked by his fellow Quakers to renounce such martial interests.

He would not.

He too was disowned, but later found sanctuary with Friends in North Carolina.

When the Yearly Meeting in Newport was disrupted due to British occupation, Friends met in Smithfield.

(gentle instrumental music) As Friends from around Rhode Island bowed their heads in silent prayer, the mothers of Nathanael Greene and Stephen Hopkins could be found among them.

(gentle music continues) After the war, the work of building a new nation began.

This meant new laws for commerce and trade and a new financial system.

The Smithfield Union Bank was incorporated by Peleg Arnold, Walter Allen, Moses Brown, and others.

As commerce grew, people eventually renamed the community Bank Village.

In its early days, the village boasted a post office, two stores, two blacksmiths, three carpenters, a jeweler, a hatter, and several businesses.

A number of houses that still remain were built by Walter Allen.

(light upbeat music) A native of Sandwich, Massachusetts, Allen served as a private in the First Rhode Island Continental Regiment at the age of 19.

Allen later married and made a home that still stands today.

(light serene music) His federalist-era houses are marked by rusticated doorways and pedimented porches with vaulted ceilings.

(light gentle music) He also owned a store, served as bank president, and built many of the village's largest surviving homes.

(light gentle music) Eventually, the Quakers expanded the meetinghouse several times.

It was destroyed by fire in 1881 and rebuilt the same year.

(soft wind blowing) It still stands to this day.

In 1779, Moses Brown founded a Monthly Meeting school in Smithfield, which led to community-led schools with Bible and missionary studies.

Quakers formed the Smithfield Academic Society in 1808, and students attended from around New England and further.

Many went on to college and mercantile careers, and James Bushee, a prominent Quaker educator, served as headmaster for many years.

All this, while the partnership of Quakers William Almy and Moses Brown and a non-Quaker, Samuel Slater, were hiring children for labor in their new mill village at Slatersville, just a few miles west on the other side of what is now North Smithfield.

Friends were among the first to advocate for the abolition of slavery.

While most were united in gradual process, some favored an immediate end to slavery.

The Smithfield Meeting formally disowned several prominent reformers for their radical views, including Arnold Buffum, the first president of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, and his daughter, Elizabeth Buffum Chace.

Quakers opposed war during the American Revolution, as well as all subsequent wars.

Quakers oppose war to this very day.

(light piano music) By the mid-19th century, railroads made long-distance stagecoach travel obsolete, forcing many taverns to close.

Commerce declined, and the bank moved to the industrialized section of the village near the falls in 1857.

Bank Village continued into genteel decline and eventually became Union Village.

(solemn music continues) Today, the Union Village Historic District preserves many of its historic structures.

In the town of North Smithfield, the only remaining farms with cattle and one of two remaining horse farms are found on the outskirts of Union Village.

Only one store remains today.

As people pass by the old meetinghouse and cemetery at speeds unthinkable to the early residents, (siren wailing) they can easily miss the stories hidden amidst the stones.

(gentle piano music) As with most Quakers, the Friends here resisted the vanity of elaborate gravestones, with most choosing a simple fieldstone instead.

- [Man] The vanity and superstition of erecting monuments and entombing the dead with singular notes or marks of distinction, which is but worldly pomp and grandeur.

(gentle piano music continues) - But the small flags and patriot markers remind us of the Quakers' sacrifices and their oft-forgotten service.

The Quakers who lived through the Revolution had a vision of a society free of war, but not of conflict.

- Friends queries, which is where they're sending around queries to different meetings to kind of articulate beliefs and see the extent of which... (gentle piano music continues) - [Narrator] The heart of any village lies in the people who reside there, the stories they tell, and what they leave behind.

While building a life, Quakers found a quiet, steady faith deep within themselves.

They labored hard to resolve issues of war and liberty, but they achieved a unity that endures today.

(crickets chirping) (engines humming nearby) (birds chirping nearby) (light wind blowing) (crickets chirping)