26 William Penn, Fruits of a Father’s Love, 50-51; quoted in DiStefano, “Concept of the Family in Colonial America,” 97.
27 Frost, Quaker Family, 43, 80. Conservative Quakers complained bitterly of this practice. One wrote, “I reckon among all the delusions of the Notionists it is not the least that of pretending and publishing that great numbers of children of Six years old and upwards are brought under deep convictions, Nay are converted by their Ministry. I have seen a boy younger imitate a preacher very nicely, use unexceptional words, and deliver himself, as if he was affected with what he said. But I count it no miracle. Who does not know that children of that age, by example and tuition, are capable of imitating almost anything. … Even a parrot may be taught to speak some few words, but he cannot [give] any rational account of the cause of those words.” John Smith to James Pemberton, 20.v.1741, Pemberton Papers, HSP.
28 John A. Hosteller, Amish Society (rev. ed., Baltimore, 1968), 108-9, 153-57. The Amish were not representative of Swiss and German immigrants in general, but the author can testify from the experience of his own family that similar ideas about child nature and nurture also existed among German Lutherans. Different practices prevailed in German Reformed households, which were closer to English Puritans.