Joshua Evans (September 23, 1731 – July 6, 1798) was an American

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

minister, journalist, and abolitionist. He was born to Thomas Evans and Rebecca Owen in Evesham Township in

Burlington County, New Jersey Burlington County is a county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The county is the largest by area in New Jersey. Its county seat is Mount Holly.

. Joshua Evans and Priscilla Collins, daughter of John Collins and Elizabeth Moore, were married at

Haddonfield :''Not the fictional Illinois town from the Halloween film series.'' Haddonfield is a borough located in Camden County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough had a total population of 11,593,

Monthly Meeting In the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), a monthly meeting or area meeting is the basic governing body, a congregation which holds regular meetings for business for Quakers in a given area. The monthly meeting is responsible for the administr ...

on November 2, 1753. Evans, after experiencing a religious conversion about the year 1754, devoted his life to sharing his interpretation of the gospel. He practiced a simple ministry and an ascetic and pious life style, and was a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetariani ...

. In 1759, Haddonfield Monthly Meeting acknowledged him as a minister. Evans was an

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

and a passionate supporter of Quaker plainness and the

Peace Testimony Peace testimony, or testimony against war, is a shorthand description of the action generally taken by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) for peace and against participation in war. Like other Quaker testimonies, it is not a "b ...

and war

tax resistance Tax resistance is the refusal to pay tax because of opposition to the government that is imposing the tax, or to government policy, or as opposition to taxation in itself. Tax resistance is a form of direct action and, if in violation of the ta ...

.Gross, David M. ''American Quaker War Tax Resistance'' (2008) pp. 90-91, 93, 201-202 Returning to New Jersey from a journey through the South, where he strongly condemned slavery, Joshua Evans died in 1798. Historians at Friends Historical Library of

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a private liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeducational colleges in the United States. It was established as ...

have transcribed his papers with the intention of displaying them on the Internet.

References

External links

Joshua Evans Papers at Swarthmore College
Includes biographical information on Joshua Evans.

Includes biographical information on Joshua Evans.
Joshua Evans’s writings on war tax resistance
{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Joshua 1731 births 1798 deaths American Quakers American people of Welsh descent American abolitionists American tax resisters People from Evesham Township, New Jersey People from Burlington County, New Jersey Quaker ministers 18th-century Quakers People from colonial New Jersey 18th-century American people Quaker abolitionists