This is an account, from the original sources, of the early history of Quakerism, founded in England at the time of the Puritan revolution and the struggle for religious liberty. It is in part an account of its founder, George Fox, son of a weaver and apprentice to a shoemaker, whose learning extended little further than the pages of the Bible, but whose complete possession by this fresh truth transcended limitations of birth, health, education or occupation. It is also the account of Fox's disciples: James Naylor, William Dewsbury, Richard Farnsworth, Margaret Fell, and others who carried the word on as the movement gained force - of their conversion, their strength of conviction, and the punishments they were frequently forced to endure by those whom their faith outraged.
The late William C. Braithwaite's Second Period of Quakerism was first published in 1919, and reprinted with corrections in 1921. This edition incorporates some changes of detail in the text and a large appendix of new matter by Henry J. Cadbury. Braithwaite's earlier volume The Beginnings of Quakerism was reissued in a similar form in 1955. The standard history of the first seventy-five years of Quakerism is thus available again.
