We finished watching “Friendly Persuasion” last evening, and although I enjoyed the film (more so now than when I first saw it) I was put off by the incorrect use of “Thee” as a subject rather than an object.
Turns out, this is historically correct:
“On a side note, I was initially puzzled by the depiction of the Quaker dialect using “thee” but not “thou” in both the objective and nominative cases. Thus, for example, where in the King James Bible we might read “Thou art the man,” the Quakers in Friendly Persuasion would say “Thee is the man.” (Example: “When thee asks or suggests, I am putty in thy hands, but when thee forbids, thee is barking up the wrong tree.”) I was even more puzzled to learn that this seemingly ungrammatical usage goes back to the source novel.
“However, I have since learned from an online article by Cheratra Yaswen that this usage is apparently historically correct: In at least some times and places, Quakers did adopt the practice of using “thee” rather than “thou” regardless of case.”
http://decentfilms.com/reviews/friendlypersuasion