author
Elias Hicks
1748–1830
A Long Island Quaker minister who became one of the most influential and controversial religious voices of early America, he is remembered for plainspoken preaching, antislavery views, and the movement that came to be called Hicksite Quakerism.
1 Audiobook
Journal of the Life and Religious Labours of Elias Hicks
by Elias Hicks
About the author
Born on March 19, 1748, in Hempstead Township on Long Island, Elias Hicks grew up in the Society of Friends and worked as a farmer, carpenter, and later a traveling minister. He became widely known among Quakers for his direct, practical preaching and for urging people to rely on the inward guidance of God rather than formal creeds.
Hicks was also an early and outspoken opponent of slavery. His ministry and writings helped strengthen antislavery feeling among Friends, even as his religious views drew sharp criticism from other Quakers who saw them as unorthodox.
The debates surrounding his teachings contributed to the major Quaker separation of 1827–1828, after which many of his followers were known as Hicksites. He died on February 27, 1830, in Jericho, Long Island, but his influence on American Quaker history and reform thought lasted well beyond his lifetime.