author
Elias Hicks
1748–1830
A forceful Quaker preacher from Long Island, he became one of the most debated religious voices of early America. His emphasis on inward spiritual experience helped inspire the Hicksite branch of Quakerism and linked his ministry to antislavery witness.
1 Audiobook
Journal of the Life and Religious Labours of Elias Hicks
by Elias Hicks
About the author
Born on Long Island in 1748, Elias Hicks was an American Quaker minister, farmer, and later a widely traveled preacher. Accounts from reference sources agree that he grew into prominence within the Religious Society of Friends and became known well beyond New York for his sermons and religious visits.
He is most often remembered for stressing the "Inner Light"—the idea that divine guidance is experienced inwardly—and for views that many fellow Quakers considered unorthodox. Those disputes became a major part of the Quaker separation of 1827–1828, and his followers came to be known as Hicksites.
Hicks was also noted as an early opponent of slavery, and his life left a lasting mark on American Quaker history. He died in 1830 at Jericho, Long Island, but his name remained attached to one of the best-known movements in 19th-century Quakerism.