From time to time, I would hear them tell of the Indians killing and scalping people... I began to think, like enough, by and by, they would kill me. . . . A thought then came into my mind, whether I was fit to die. . . . Thus, I was brought to mind and follow . . . that within me, that inclined me to good, and showed and condemned evil. – William Boen (1735-1824) p. 7.
As I become acquainted with this early Friend – William Boen – from New Jersey, and learn where he lived – Mt Holly – I am not surprised that he has appeared. His writing feels so much of its time. I ponder the connection with John Woolman: He must have known Woolman. Was he inspired by him? Did he inspire Woolman?
And here is Helen Morgan Brooks! I have not read her in many years. I remember meeting her at an event, perhaps Yearly Meeting, and discovering her poetry later. Rich it is! I imagine using it in First Day School.
I must believe in love
As a testimony against madness
And war and broken promises.
I choose love. (p.146)
I'd read about Ira Reid and had heard about him from almost every African American Friend I've met. I discover here fresh language challenging government policies based on war. Fresh? This is from 1958! Not so fresh, then . . . and yet very fresh. So here is another voice that has been made visible again, over 50 years later. He draws on the work of John Greenleaf Whittier (a white Friend, poet, and abolitionist whom I came to know working on the Friends hymnal, Worship in Song) when he quotes: “I am not blind to the shortcomings of Friends,” and goes on:
He expressed his concern that they had lost so much by coldness and inactivity, by the overestimate of external observances and the negelect of their own proper work while serving as the conscience-keepers of others. Whittier suggested that Friends were too much "at ease in Zion"; that Friends in the period of reconstruction in the United States had not been active enough "in those simple duties which we owe to our suffering fellow creatures; that there had been a decline in practical righteousness. But if we look at the matter closely, we shall see that the cause is not in the central truth of Quakerism, but in a failure to rightly comprehend.” Ira Reid, pp.100, 101.
Then there is Jean Toomer, that leader of young Friends in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. I first learned of him over a decade ago from Carolyn Terrell. His leadership was important to her as a young Friend -- she was unaware that he was black. Now his Quaker writings are again available! Barrington Dunbar, Sarah Mapps Douglas, Bayard Rustin – all "old friends" that I’d read before, some as long ago as 20 years, now again are available.
I’m grateful for the energy and determination of Hal Weaver to assure this book was published. I’m grateful to Paul Kriese and Steve Angell for their steadfast support. What an additional treasure to have for learning more about the faithfulness, the depth and the spirit of Friends!
Joan Broadfield
Mark Helpsmeet of 
Hear Hal Weaver, one of Black Fire's editors, in two radio interviews conducted in early February to talk about the book. 
