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Whose side will you be on?
Will you fight for that side?
Those were the questions facing Pennsylvania Mennonites as the North American colonies fought for independence from King George III.
The colonial patriots wanted all able-bodied men to respond to the call to arms, or if conscience prevented that, to contribute liberally of their means to the patriots' cause.
But what about their promise of loyalty to the king, who had provided them a haven of religious liberty, the likes of which they had not known in Europe? Would the patriots destroy the right of military exemption promised to the nonresistant people by William Penn?
As the war dragged on, the Mennonites faced another difficult question. While trying to keep peace with their neighbors, would they be able to keep peace among themselves?
In this new edition of John L. Ruth's classic work, you will learn about the struggles, triumphs, and human foibles of a peaceful community caught in the crossfire of the Revolutionary War.
About the author
John Landis Ruth was born in 1930 on a farm in Lower Salford Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. A graduate of the Lower Salford Consolidated School (1944) and Lancaster Mennonite High School (1948), he was ordained a minister in the Franconia Mennonite Conference at the age of twenty, and in the following year married Roma Jeanette Jacobs of Hollsopple, Pennsylvania. Graduating with an A.B. in English from Eastern Baptist College (1956), he concluded his studies at Harvard University with a doctoral thesis on the topic of early American hymnody (1968). After teaching English at Eastern College (now Eastern University) and a year as lecturer at the University of Hamburg, Germany, he accepted an invitation from Franconia Mennonite Conference leaders to take up historical work. Among his books are Conrad Grebel, Son of Zurich (1975); Maintaining the Right Fellowship (a history of two Mennonite conferences, 1984); A Quiet and Peaceable Life (1985); The Earth is the Lord's: A Narrative History of the Lancaster Mennonite Conference (2001); Forgiveness: A Legacy of the West Nickel Mines Amish School (2007); Branch: A Memoir with Pictures (2013); and This Very Ground, This Crooked Affair: A Mennonite Homestead on Lenape Land (2021). From 1972 to 1993 he served as an associate pastor in the Salford Mennonite congregation, and from 1973 to 2018 as commentator on historical tours in Europe. His wife, Roma Ruth, has produced many "fraktur" certificates, posters, awards, etc., based on the folk art of their home region. While adding a chapter to 'Twas Seeding Time, author Ruth and wife moved from his birth home near the Salford meetinghouse into a retirement facility named for Salford's schoolteacher Christopher Dock. The Ruths have two living children, nine grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.
