Early modern Quakers looked to their dreams to gain spiritual
insight and developed a potent system of dreamwork that acted
simultaneously as a device for gaining and retaining authority and
as a democratizing force. Night Journeys recounts how Quakers on
both sides of the Atlantic turned their sleeping experiences into
powerful stories that advanced a more inclusive--but still
imperial--vision of colonial and Revolutionary America.
Quakers did not keep their dreams to themselves. On the American
mainland, Caribbean plantations, and in the British Isles, Quakers
were competing to shape their imperial culture when they circulated
dreams beyond meetinghouse walls and influenced larger
transatlantic movements for reform.
Covering a broad time span that begins with the English civil
war and ends with the creation of the American republic, Carla
Gerona argues that dreams provided Quakers with mental maps to
influence the values of their emerging colonial society, usually,
though not exclusively, in progressive ways. Night visions, as
Quakers often termed their dreams, contributed to social and
cultural changes such as the abolition of slavery and religious
reform. Simultaneously, dreams helped Quakers define and delineate
their mission in America and the world, fostering innovative
concepts of individuality, community, nation, and empire.
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