THERE IS DEATH IN THE POT - The University of Texas at Arlington

for the slave; rather, Derkin asked Pennock to do so within the bounds of the church in
order to preserve his “use & influence” in it. 34
Compared to Pennock, Rhoads and Taylor were apparently late arrivals to
organized abstention. Rhoads and Taylor were not involved in the Free Produce Society
of Pennsylvania; however, Rhoads did join the American Free Produce Association in the
mid-1840s. Pennock most likely recruited Rhoads to the movement on the basis of his
tract, Considerations on the Use of the Productions of Slavery. During the Hicksite
schism, Taylor joined with Orthodox Quakers. Taylor later recounted a conversation he
had with Elias Hicks in 1826: “I saw that I must either give [Hicks] up or the Holy
Scriptures. From that time on I no longer leaned with the admirers of Elias Hicks.” A
teacher, Taylor and his wife moved from New York to Philadelphia in 1834 where they
resided with Ann Scattergood until they found a suitable home. Taylor’s conservative
racial views contrasted with the more liberal views held by the majority of free-produce
supporters. Taylor advocated colonization because he “believed it best for the human
family in America . . . that the two colors had better be as far asunder as the breadth of the
earth will permit.” He worked as an agent for the Bible Association of Friends until he
became involved with the free-produce association in the 1840s. 35
34 Free Produce Society of Pennsylvania, Constitution; The Friend, May 29, 1830, April 27, 1833,
and May 31, 1834; Edwin B. Bronner, Sharing the Scriptures: The Bible Association of Friends in
America, 1829-1879 (Philadelphia: The Bible Association of Friends, 1979); Lucretia Mott to Phebe Post
Willis, September 13, 1834, in Selected Letters, 28; The Liberator, June 2, 1837; Pennock Sellers, David
Pennock, Mary Pennock Sellers, 45-46; Alex Derkin to Abraham L. Pennock, June 18, 1845, Civil War and
Slavery Collection, Special Collections and University Archives, Grand Valley State University Libraries,
Allendale, Michigan. The Bible Association of Friends is discussed in chapter 5.
35 George W. Taylor as quoted in Sarah M. Grimké to Elizabeth Pease, November 14, 1840, in
Letters of Theodore Weld . . ., 854; George W. Taylor, Autobiography and Writings of George W. Taylor
(Philadelphia: n.p., 1891), 29-30, 39-43.
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