Young Friends of North America Committee on Conscription Records

This collection is small, but valuable because of the personal information it contains in correspondence, statements, and questionnaires filled out by Friends (and others) who resisted the draft. The Committee also collected information from various yearly meetings about their stance on draft resistance, conscription, providing sanctuary to men opposed to the draft, and tax resistance. In addition, the collection holds a small amount of material from other Protestant denominations about these subjects, including the Church of the Brethren and the Mennonite Church. One folder in the collection regarding the Young Friends of North America and its joint (?) efforts with New Swarthmoor does not seem to be part of the Committee on Conscription's work, though men involved in both groups may have been active with or interested in the Committee.

The Committee worked closely with A Quaker Action Group and other organizations in developing material to promote draft resistance among Friends and to document Quaker men who had declared themselves to be Conscientious Objectors. In processing this collection, it was at times difficult to discern when something was designed by the Committee alone, or when it was done collegially with another group, and the original folders were not specific enough to help in sorting the material as well has would have been preferable. Therefore, researchers should be aware that the current arrangement of the material may not be a totally accurate reflection of this Committee's work.