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 EXTRACTS 
 
 FROM 
 
 WRITINGS OF FRIENDS, 
 
 ON 
 
 THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY, 
 
 Published by direction of the «* Association of Friends for Advocating the 
 
 Cause of the Slave, and Improving the Condition of the Free 
 
 People of Color. " 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 MKRRIHEW AND THOMPSON, PRINTER 
 
 No. 7 Carter's Alley. 
 1839. 
 
H S.,i;' 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Q? 
 
 The following little work is made up of a few extracts from 
 the writings of Friends on slavery, and from the historical ac- 
 count of the progress of our testimony on this subject. It is 
 published with a hope that it may be instrumental in awaken- 
 ing some to increased diligence, by stirring up in their memo- 
 ries the deep suffering and travail of spirit which many of our 
 early Friends passed through in the rise of this testimony. We 
 find in the founder of our religious society a concern — perhaps 
 the earliest manifestation of feeling on the subject — time after 
 time those were raised up to advocate the cause of this deeply 
 injured people. They boldly and zealously avowed their oppo- 
 sition to the practice of holding their fellow creatures in slavery, 
 and their belief that it was utterly at variance with the true 
 principles of Christianity. Surrounded as they were by slave- 
 holders, those who had been brought up to regard the colored 
 man as an inferior being — as property — it is no marvel that their 
 benevolent efforts were violently opposed. But urged on by a 
 sense of duty, and a love of truth, they steadfastly and unwa- 
 veringly maintained their ground amidst the fiery persecution 
 to which they were subjected, and the long-cherished and deep- 
 rooted prejudices which they had to encounter. One by one 
 new converts to the truth of their principles were led to espouse 
 the cause, and in the process of time the Society adopted a rule 
 of discipline, prohibiting its members from holding slaves. 
 Our religious society was the first denomination that washed 
 its hands from the inhuman and unchristian practice; but when 
 this was done, and as a society, they were clear of slaveholding, 
 did the testimony fall ? No, far from it. Those truly benevo- 
 lent and philanthropic minds who were enabled clearly to see 
 the injustice of slavery, viewed this as but the beginning of a 
 
[ 4 ] 
 
 mighty reformation. Encouraged and stimulated by the suc- 
 cess with which their labors had been crowned in their own 
 society, they resumed their efforts in behalf of the slave with 
 renewed energy. They beheld the red men of the forest inhu- 
 manly driven from their homes, barbarous cruelties inflicted on 
 their persons, and their property stolen from them, to gratify the 
 avarice of the white man. They beheld the small remnant of 
 once mighty nations who were left to tell the story of the 
 wrongs which their people had suffered, and they looked for- 
 ward, with the sorrowful contemplation that but a few more years 
 would complete their extinction. They beheld, also, still 
 greater enormities being practised upon another portion of the 
 human family, who were not only forcibly taken from their na- 
 tive land, from the endearments of home, but whose families 
 were rudely torn apart, and the nearest ties of nature rent 
 asunder in a far, a strange country, reduced to slavery — vic- 
 tims — a prey to the same sordid avarice which was extermi- 
 nating the poor defenceless Indian. In view of these great 
 evils which were invoking the Divine displeasure, they were 
 led to embrace every right opening to plead in behalf of the op- 
 pressed, and to declare to the people the truth " that righteous- 
 ness exalteth a nation," while " sin is a reproach to any peo- 
 ple." The testimony seemed to grow and increase. Many 
 among other societies were enlisted, and became efficient advo- 
 cates of emancipation. A Wilberforce, a Clarkson, and many 
 others, united with Friends in promoting this good work. We 
 ardently desire that Friends of the present time may be engaged 
 to exalt still higher the testimony of truth on this subject. 
 
EXTRACTS. 
 
 GEORGE FOX. 
 
 " la the West Indies, also, he exhorted those who at- 
 tended his meetings, to be merciful to their slaves, and to 
 give them their freedom in due time. He considered these 
 as belonging to their families, and that religious instruc- 
 tion was due to these as the branches of them, for whom, 
 one day or other, they would be required to give a solemn 
 account. Happy had it been if these Christian exhorta- 
 tions had been attended to, or if these families only, whom 
 he thus seriously addressed, had continued to be true 
 Quakers ; for they would have set an example, which 
 would have proved to the rest of the islanders, and the 
 world at large, that the impolicy is not less than the wick- 
 edness of oppression. Thus was George Fox probably 
 the first person who publicly declared against this species 
 of slavery. Nothing, in short, that could be deplored by 
 humanity, seems to have escaped his eye ; and his be- 
 nevolence, when excited, appears to have suffered no in- 
 terruption in its progress by the obstacles which bigotry 
 would have thrown in the way of many, on the account 
 of the difference of a person's country, or his color, or his 
 sect." — Clarkson's Portraiture of Quakerism. 
 
 " It is somewhat remarkable that the first manifestation 
 of a religious concern among Friends on the subject of 
 slavery, occurs in the history of these German Friends 
 settled at Germantown. In the year 1688, they present- 
 ed a protest, drawn by Daniel F. Pastorius, to the Yearly 
 Meeting then held at Burlington, against buying, selling, 
 or holding men in slavery, as inconsistent with the Chris- 
 tian religion." — Friends' Miscellany. 
 
 " Third month 12th, 1785, in conversation with our 
 friend John Forman, of North Wales, mention was made 
 of Benjamin Lay. I said, I thought he was the first 
 1* 
 
[ 6 ] 
 
 Friend that bore a testimony against slave-keeping. He 
 said, * No, there was one John Farmer, a Friend, on a 
 visit from England that had a very powerful testimony 
 against the oppression of the black people.' He informed 
 me that at a meeting in Pennsylvania, this John Farmer 
 bore his testimony against slave-keeping, and a great man, 
 who kept negroes, being there, got up and desired Friends 
 to look on that man as an open enemy to the country ; 
 and some Friends also bearing rather hard against him, 
 persuaded him to make something like an acknowledg- 
 ment. This so struck John Farmer that he sunk under 
 it, declined in his gift, and never went back to England, 
 but died here. 
 
 On his death-bed he said, he was entirely easy about 
 every thing but that of flinching from his testimony at that 
 time, and in that manner." — John Hunt. 
 
 Ralph Sandiford. — " The result of his inquiry was 
 delivered in the following sound opinion : « The holding 
 of Negroes in slavery is inconsistent with the rights of 
 man, and contrary to the preceps of the Author of Chris- 
 tianity.' With this doctrine he began his career in the 
 work of reformation, and in this conviction he closed his 
 benevolent labors, and with them his earthly pilgrimage." 
 
 " From the time of his first arrival in Pennsylvania, 
 until the year 1729, he was zealously engaged, through 
 all the vicissitudes of his fortune, in promulgating his 
 opinions on the subject of slavery. This he did by a 
 strong exposition of his sentiments, when he supposed 
 they might have the least influence on the minds of those 
 whom he met; and so deeply was his mind engaged with 
 this important concern, that he sought opportunities of 
 provoking discussion respecting it wherever he went." 
 Memoirs of R. Sandiford, by R. Vaux. 
 
 BENJAMIN LAY. 
 
 In reviewing the life and character of this distinguished 
 man, we find him possessed with considerable powers of 
 mind, which were assiduously devoted to the promulga- 
 tion of his views on the subject of slavery, in which he 
 was deeply interested, and against which he bore a faith- 
 
[ 7 ] 
 
 ful and practical testimony. His benevolent mind was 
 enabled to see the sinfulness of this inhuman practice ; and 
 his zeal in advocating its abolition, together with the sin- 
 gular and striking means to which he resorted to impress 
 upon the minds of the people its importance, laid him open 
 to the charge of fanaticism. His appeals were pathetic, 
 and could but be forcibly felt. One day he stood barefoot 
 in the street, on the snow, and noticing a manifestation of 
 sympathy on the part of the passers by : 
 
 "Ah, (said he) you pretend compassion for me, but you 
 do not feel for the poor slaves in your fields, who go half 
 clad all winter." 
 
 One of his neighbors inquiring, in great distress, for his 
 lost child, Lay paused and said, " Your child is safe in 
 my house, and you may now conceive of the sorrow you 
 inflict upon the parents of the negro girl you hold in sla- 
 very, for she was torn from them by avarice." 
 
 Not long before his death, a friend of Lay's made him a 
 visit for the purpose of acquainting him that the religious 
 Society of Friends had come to the determination to dis- 
 own such of their members as could not be persuaded to 
 desist from the practice of holding slaves, or were con- 
 cerned in the importation of them. The venerable and 
 constant friend and advocate of that oppressed race of 
 men, attentively listened to this heart-cheering intelligence, 
 and after a few moments reflection on what he had heard, 
 he rose from his chair, and in an attitude of devotional 
 reverence poured forth this pious ejaculation : '* Thanks- 
 giving and praise be rendered unto the Lord God." After 
 a short pause, he added, " I can now die in peace." 
 
 Sarah Lay was an intelligent and pious woman, an ap- 
 proved minister of the Gospel in the Society of Friends ; 
 she cordially united with her husband in his disapproba- 
 tion of slavery, and contributed all in her power to the 
 support of his mind under the trials which he suffered in 
 his exertions to promote a change in public sentiment, re- 
 specting the inhumanity and injustice of the custom. 
 
 Memoirs of B. Lay, by R. Vaux. 
 
[ 8 ] 
 
 Extracts from Anthony BenezeVs Notes on the. 
 Slave Trade. 
 "You have seen them torn away, children from their 
 parents, parents from their children ; husbands from their 
 wives, wives from their beloved husbands ; brethren and 
 sisters from each other. You have dragged them who had 
 never done you any wrong, perhaps in chains, from their 
 native shore. You have forced them into your ships, like 
 an herd of swine, them who had souls immortal as your 
 own. You have stowed them together as close as ever 
 they could lie, without any regard to decency or conve- 
 niency. — And when many of them had been poisoned by 
 foul air, or had sunk under various hardships, 'you have 
 seen their remains delivered to the deep, till the sea should 
 give up his dead.' You have carried the survivors into 
 the vilest slavery, never to end but with life : Such sla- 
 very as is not found among the Turks at Algiers, no, nor 
 among the heathens in America." 
 
 " Are you a man ? Then you should have a human 
 heart. But have you indeed ? What is your heart made of? 
 Is there no such principle as compassion there ? Do you 
 never feel another's pain ? Have you no sympathy ? No 
 sense of human woe ? No pity for the miserable? When 
 you saw the flowing eyes, the heaving breast, or the bleed- 
 ing sides and tortured limbs of your fellow-creatures, was 
 you a stone or a brute ? Did you look upon them with 
 the eyes of a tiger ? When you squeezed the agonizing 
 creatures down in the ship, or when you threw their poor 
 mangled remains into the sea, had you no relentings ? Did 
 not one tear drop from your eye, one sigh escape from 
 your breast ? Do you feel no relenting now ? If you do 
 not, you must go on till the measure of your iniquities is 
 full. Then will the great God deal with you, as you have 
 dealt with them, and require all their blood at your hands. 
 And at that day it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and 
 Gomorrah than for you : But if your heart does relent, 
 though in a small degree, know it is a call from the God 
 of Love. And to-day, if you hear his voice, harden not 
 your heart — to-day resolve, God being your helper to es- 
 cape for your life. Regard not money: All that a man hath 
 will he give for his life. Whatever you lose, lose not your 
 
C 9 ] 
 
 soul ; nothing can countervail that loss. Immediately quit 
 the horrid trade : At all events be an honest man." 
 
 " And this equally concerns every person who has an 
 estate in our American plantations : Yea, all slave-holders 
 of whatever rank and degree ; seeing men-buyers are ex- 
 actly on a level with men-stealers. Indeed you say, ' I 
 pay honestly for my goods ; and I am ' not concerned to 
 know how they are ' come by.' Nay but you are : You 
 are deeply concerned, to know that they are not stolen : 
 Otherwise you are partaker with a thief, and are not a jot 
 honester than him. But you know they are not honestly 
 come by : You know they are procured by means nothing 
 near so innocent as picking of pockets, house breaking, or 
 robbery upon the highway. You know they are procured 
 by a deliberate series of more complicated villainy (of 
 fraud, robbery and murder) than was ever practised either 
 by Mahometans or Pagans ; in particular by murders of all 
 kinds ; by the blood of the innocent poured upon the 
 ground like water. Now it is your money that pays the 
 merchant, and thro' him the captain and African butchers. 
 You therefore are guilty : Yea, principally guilty, of all 
 these frauds, robberies, and murders. You are the spring 
 that puts all the rest in motion ; they would not stir a step 
 without you — Therefore the blood of all these wretches, 
 who die before their time, whether in their country or 
 elsewhere, lies upon your head. The blood of thy bro- 
 ther, (for whether thou wilt believe it or no, such he is in 
 the sight of him that made him) crieth against thee from 
 the earth, from the ship and from the waters. O ! what- 
 ever it cost, put a stop to its cry, before it be too late. In- 
 stantly, at any price, were it the half of thy goods, deliver 
 thyself from blood guiltiness ! Thy hands, thy bed, thy 
 furniture, thy house, thy land, are at present stained with 
 blood. Surely it is enough ; accumulate no more guilt: 
 Spill no more the blood of the innocent ! Do not hire 
 another to shed blood ! Do not pay him for doing it ! 
 Whether thou art a Christian or no, shew thyself a man ; 
 be not more savage than a lion or a bear. 
 
 " Perhaps thou wilt say, ' I do not buy any Negroes : I 
 only use those left me by my father.' But is it enough 
 to satisfy your own conscience ! Had your father, have 
 you, has any man living, a right to use another as a Slave ? 
 
C 10 ] 
 
 It cannot be, even setting REVELATION aside. It can- 
 not be, that either war, or contract, can give any man such 
 a property in another as he has in his sheep and oxen : 
 Much less is it possible, that any child of man, should 
 ever be born a Slave. Liberty is the right of every human 
 creature, as soon as he breathes the vital air. And no hu- 
 man law can deprive him of that right, which he derives 
 from the law of nature. If therefore you have any regard 
 to justice, (to say nothing of mercy, nor of the revealed 
 law of GOD) render unto all their due. Give Liberty to 
 whom Liberty is due, that is to every child of man, to 
 every partaker of human nature. Let none serve you but 
 by his own act and deed, by his own voluntary choice ; 
 away with whips, chains, and all compulsion. Be gentle 
 towards all men. And see that you invariably do unto 
 every one, as you would he should do unto you." 
 
 Testimony of Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting concerning 
 John Woolman. 
 
 " He was deeply concerned on account of that inhuman 
 and iniquitous practice of making slaves of the people of 
 Africa, or holding them in that state ; and on that account 
 we understand he hath not only wrote some books, but 
 travelled much on the continent of America, in order to 
 make the negro-masters (especially those in profession 
 with us) sensible of the evil of such a practice. And though 
 in this journey to England, he was far removed from the 
 outward sight of their sufferings, yet his deep exercise of 
 mind remained ; as appears by a short treatise he wrote in 
 this journey, and his frequent concern to open the miser- 
 able state of this deeply injured people." 
 
 The following example of faithfulness to the dictates of 
 truth, in what was at that time considered a small thing — 
 but which was instrumental in effecting the liberation of 
 several of his fellow-beings, is well worthy of imitation. 
 
 "About this time, an ancient man of good esteem in the 
 neighborhood, came to my house to get his will wrote. 
 He had young negroes ; and I, asking him privately how 
 he purposed to dispose of them, he told me : I then said, 
 I cannot write thy will without breaking my own peace ; 
 and respectfully gave him my reasons for it. He signified 
 that he had a choice that I should have wrote it ; but as I 
 
C 11 ] 
 
 could not, consistent with my conscience, he did not de- 
 sire it ; and so he got it wrote by some other person. And 
 a few years after, there being great alterations in his fa- 
 mily, he came again to get me to write his will : his ne- 
 groes were yet young; and his son, to whom he intended 
 to give them, was, since he first spoke to me, from a liber- 
 tine become a sober young man ; and he supposed, that I 
 would have been free, on that account, to write it. We 
 had much friendly talk on the subject, and then deferred it : 
 and a few days after, he came again, and directed their 
 freedom ; and so I wrote his will. 
 
 "Near the time the last mentioned friend first spoke to 
 me, a neighbour received a bad bruise in his body, and 
 sent for me to bleed him ; which being done, he desired 
 me to write his will. I took notes; and amongst other 
 things, he told me to which of his children he gave his 
 young negro. I considered the pain and distress he was 
 in, and knew not how it would end : so I wrote his will, 
 save only that part concerning his slave ; and, carrying it 
 to his bed-side, read it to him : and then told him, in a 
 friendly way, that I could not write any instruments by 
 which my fellow-creatures were made slaves without bring- 
 ing trouble on my own mind. I let him know that I charg- 
 ed nothing for what I had done ; and desired to be excus- 
 ed from doing the other part in the way he proposed. We 
 then had a serious conference on the subjent ; and at length, 
 he agreeing to set her free, I finished his will." 
 
 " Should we contemplate on their circumstances, when 
 suddenly attacked, and labor to understand their inex- 
 pressible anguish of soul who survive the conflict; — should 
 we think on inoffensive women, who fled at the alarm, 
 and at their return saw that village in which they and their 
 acquaintance were raised up, and had pleasantly spent their 
 youthful days, now, lying in a gloomy desolation; some 
 shocked at finding the mangled bodies of their near friends 
 amongst the slain ; others bemoaning the absence of a 
 brother, a sister, a child, or a whole family of children, 
 who, by cruel men, are bound and carried to market to be 
 sold, without the least hopes of seeing them agttin: — add 
 to this, the afflicted condition of these poor captives, who 
 are separated from family connexions, and all the comforts 
 
[ 12 ] 
 
 arising from friendship and acquaintance; — carried amongst 
 a people of a strange language, to be parted from their 
 fellow-captives, — put to labor in a manner more servile 
 and wearisome than what they were used to, with many 
 sorrowful circumstances attending their slavery ; — and we 
 must necessarily see that it belongs not to the followers of 
 Christ to be parties in such a trade, on the motives of out- 
 ward gain." 
 
 "The upright in heart cannot succeed the wicked in 
 their wickedness ; nor is it consonant to the life they live, 
 to hold fast an advantage unjustly gained." 
 
 " It is granted by many, that the means used in getting 
 them (the slaves) are unrighteous, and that buying them, 
 when brought here, is wrong ; yet as setting them free is 
 attended with some difficulty, they do not comply with it ; 
 but seem to be of the opinion, that to give them food and 
 raiment, and keep them servants, without any other wa- 
 ges, is the best way to manage them that they know of: 
 and hoping that their children after them will not be cruel 
 to the negroes, conclude to leave them as slaves to their 
 children. 
 
 " While present outward interest is the chief object of 
 our attention, we shall feel many objections in our minds 
 against renouncing our claim to them, as the children of 
 slaves : for, being prepossessed with wrong opinions, pre- 
 vents our seeing things clearly, which to indifferent per- 
 sons, are easy to be seen." 
 
 " If we seriously consider that liberty is the right of in- 
 nocent men ; — that the mighty God is a refuge for the op- 
 pressed ; — that in reality we are indebted to ihem ; — that 
 they being set free, are still liable to the penalties of our 
 laws, and as likely to have punishment for their crimes as 
 other people : this may answer all our objections. And 
 to retain them in perpetual servitude, without just cause 
 for it, will produce effects, in the event, more grievous 
 than setting them free would do, when a real love to truth 
 and equity was the motive to it." 
 
 ♦'Negroes are our fellow-creatures, and their present 
 condition amongst us requires our serious consideration. 
 We know not the time when those scales in which moun- 
 tains are weighed, may turn. The Parent of mankind is 
 
[ 13 ] 
 
 gracious ; his care is over his smallest creatures ; and a 
 multitude of men escape not his notice. And though ma- 
 ny of them are trodden down, and despised, yet he re- 
 members them. He seeth their affliction, and looketh up- 
 on the spreading, increasing exaltation of the oppressor. 
 He turns the channels of power, humbles the most haugh- 
 ty people, and gives deliverance to the oppressed, at such 
 periods as are consistent with his infinite justice and good- 
 ness. And wherever gain is preferred to equity, and 
 wrong things publicly encouraged, to that degree that wick- 
 edness takes root, and spreads wide amongst the inhabi- 
 tants of a country, there is real cause for sorrow to all such 
 whose love to mankind stands on a true principle, and who 
 wisely consider the end and event of things." 
 
 John Woolmarvs Works. 
 
 Extract from William Tuke's letter to R. Haines, on 
 the death of John Woolman : 
 
 " His last testimony was in a meeting for discipline, on 
 the subject of the slave-trade ; remarking, that as Friends 
 had been solicitous for and had obtained relief from many 
 of their sufferings, so he recommended this oppressed part 
 of the creation to their notice, that they may in an indi- 
 vidual capacity, as way may open, present their hardships 
 and sufferings to those in authority, especially the legis- 
 lative power in this kingdom. I am persuaded that this 
 last public labor made a deep impression on many minds. 
 I wish the great sufferings he hath passed through on ac- 
 count of this oppressed and injured people may deeply 
 affect the minds of those in America among whom he hath 
 faithfully and painfully labored, and of whom he said he 
 was clear." — Friends' Miscellany. 
 
 JAMES PEMBERTON. 
 
 " His philanthropy was not limited to any one sect or 
 class of people,— it flowed towards all, without respect to 
 nation, condition, or color. The multiplied sufferings and 
 evils inflicted on the African race, made such impression 
 on his mind through a long period of his life, that he di- 
 rected a considerable portion of his attention, and employ- 
 ed much of his time, in endeavours to meliorate the 
 wretchedness, and improve the condition of this degraded 
 
 2 
 
[ 14 ] 
 
 class of our fellow beings. And he lived to witness the 
 fruits of the unwearied efforts of the advocates of the na- 
 tural rights of men. In the year 1774, he was among the 
 first of those philanthropists, " who," as Clarkson says, 
 " undertook the important task of bringing those into a 
 society, who were friendly to this cause ;" and who suc- 
 ceeded in establishing the " Society for promoting the 
 abolition of Slavery, the relief of free negroes unlawfully 
 held in bondage, and for improving the condition of the 
 African race." He filled several important offices in the 
 Society, and continued a member thereof until his decease. 
 During all this time, his exertions were indefatigable in 
 the promotion of those benevolent objects for which it 
 was instituted. 
 
 James Pemberton, A. Benezet, and many other prominent 
 Friends were instrumental in forming this Society. The 
 former held, for a series of years, the offices of President 
 and Vice President. They succeeded in awakening con- 
 siderable abhorrence of Slavery, by their untiring zeal in 
 the cause, and spirited appeals to their fellow citizens in 
 behalf of the slave. In this great work, they were asso- 
 ciated with Dr. Benjamin Franklin, B. Rush, Tench Coxe, 
 and many others of other societies. 
 
 WARNER MIFFLIN. 
 
 " It is from a sense of duty both to myself, and to my 
 country that I make these observations, and state some 
 things interesting to both. It was on this ground I be- 
 came engaged with others to urge the subject of our righte- 
 ous concern to different legislatures, in order to remove 
 legislative obstacles from those who are disposed to libe- 
 rate their slaves, and to protect those who are set free. 
 And though salutary laws have been enacted in some states, 
 tor which I believe a blessing will attend them, yet still 
 the evil is continued in other parts where conscientious 
 persons are discouraged from liberating their slaves, as by 
 existing laws the blacks are liable again to be taken in 
 bondage by dissolute people who are disposed to avail 
 themselves of unrighteous laws, and in many instances 
 great numbers have been cruelly seized and sold into re- 
 newed bondage. Doth not this excite a fearful apprehen- 
 sion, that the measure of their iniquity is filling, who so 
 
C 15 ] 
 
 act, and that they are ripening for the chastisement which 
 shall be poured upon the workers of iniquity. An ad- 
 ditional enormity prevailing', is the kidnapping of free 
 blacks, carrying them off and selling them for slaves, in 
 some instances whole families, and in others separating 
 them one from another. 
 
 It is urged as a great objection to the emancipation of 
 the blacks, their disposition for pilfering. But is not the 
 depriving of them of that most valuable property, liberty, 
 and keeping them under the oppression of slavery, the 
 very cause of this fault. Being pinched at times for every 
 necessary of life, they put forth a hand to partake of what 
 in equity their labor gives them a claim to, from their 
 possessors, where due support is withheld, and these prac- 
 tices becoming habitual in their impoverished condition, 
 they discriminate not sufficiently between the property of 
 those they labor for and others, but when opportunity 
 presents frequently supply their wants from all alike, ex- 
 cept when a principle of religious rectitude restrains from 
 all such acts. I attempt not to palliate the crime." 
 
 Having liberated a considerable number of black people, 
 which were in his possession, he assisted his father, in a 
 like laudible concern, to liberate many more, who were 
 in the condition of slaves. And when our religious socie- 
 ty, in general, became clear of this unrighteous imposition 
 upon mankind, his concern appeared to be enlarged, to 
 labor amongst other people. Forcibly expostulating with 
 ministers and clergymen, of different denominations and 
 degrees, — with delegates in congress in different slates, — 
 with governors, judges, and magistrates, in Christian bold- 
 ness, — being influenced by wisdom from above, — he en- 
 deavored to dissuade rulers from countenancing or en- 
 couraging the unrighteous traffic in human flesh — and to 
 convince all classes of the injustice, cruelty, and oppres- 
 sion connected with enslaving, or holding in slavery, our 
 fellow men. He was much concerned, that professing 
 Christians might not be accessary to add to the guilt al- 
 ready incurred, on account of this cruel traffic and prac- 
 tice ; and which he believed would occasion the pouring 
 forth of the Lord's indignation upon those places where 
 such abominations continued. Under these exercises, his 
 diligence and zeal, in advocating the cause of the oppress- 
 
C 16 ] 
 
 ed, further appears, by many letters, writings, and notes, 
 which he left behind him. 
 
 Being endowed with a benevolent mind, accompanied 
 in an eminent degree with that philanthropy which cha- 
 racterizes the true Christian, he was a most distinguished 
 friend to that poor and despised race of mankind, the Afri- 
 can people, for whose emancipation from a state of bon- 
 dage, he not only labored in his own society, so long as 
 the members of it continued to hold slaves, but on all oc- 
 casions, when his lot was cast amongst those who con- 
 tinued to countenance the unrighteous traffic in human 
 flesh, he was concerned tenderly and faithfully to warn 
 them of the danger to which they were exposing them- 
 selves ; and of the distress and misery it would bring upon 
 them in a dying hour, if they continued in practices so 
 repugnant to that righteous law held forth in the precepts 
 of the gospel, " Do unto all men, as ye would they should 
 do unto you." And ever since the abolition of the slave 
 trade in these states, he seldom failed at the annual assem- 
 blies, (when he was present,) in his own society to hold 
 up to view, in a very affecting manner, the cause of this 
 afflicted people ; exciting in his fellow members a tender 
 feeling for their sufferings under the hand of oppression, 
 and recommending the exercise of the spirit of prayer to 
 the great Controller of events, for their deliverance and 
 more general emancipation from a state of slavery ; as also 
 an unremitted attention to their guarded education, and 
 religious instruction. — Friends Miscellany. 
 
 Extracts from manuscripts of John Parrish. 
 
 " All the reasoning in favor of Slavery is eroneous, such 
 as their being of the stock of Ham not having hair as long 
 or as straight as ours, or their being of a different color, 
 etc. It is enough to know, and it cannot be denied, that 
 they are a part of God's creation — men." 
 
 " I feel my mind bound from a sense of duty, to speak 
 plainly in espousing the cause of the slave, in opening my 
 mouth for the dumb, for those who have no representa- 
 tives to appear in their behalf." 
 
 11 I am under the necessity of differing with my friend 
 when he supposes that the distinction which nature has 
 made will devide us into parties, and produce convulsions 
 
C 17 ] 
 
 which will probably never end but in the extermination of 
 one or the other race. I am satisfied that this manner of 
 treating- the subject tends very much to retard the work 
 of emancipation." 
 
 • c Can it be doubted that the groans of this oppressed 
 part of the human family have reached the ears of the Lord 
 God of Sabbaoth. Then surely this is an object which 
 those who trust in Providence will be convinced would be 
 aided by the Author of our being, should we invoke his 
 blessing upon our endeavors." 
 
 " I believe slavery is one chief cause of wars and ca- 
 lamities.'' " Did any of the European nations, or even the 
 savages of the wilderness ever equal the barbarities ex- 
 ercised by some of the slaveholders towards their slaves, 
 not only in the infliction of cruel corporeal punishment, but 
 in the separation of the nearest ties of nature." 
 
 Extract from an Epistle issued by the London Yearly 
 Meeting, 1772. — " It likewise appears that the practice 
 of holding negroes in oppression and unnatural bondage, 
 hath been so successfully discouraged by Friends, in some 
 of the colonies, as to be considerably lessened. We can- 
 not but approve of these salutary endeavors, and earnestly 
 entreat they may be continued, that, through the favor of 
 Divine providence, a traffic so unmerciful and unjust in its 
 nature to a part of our species, made, equally with our- 
 selves, for immortality, may come to be considered by all 
 in its proper light, and be utterly abolished, as a reproach 
 to the Christian profession. — Lond. Epist. p. 307. 
 
 T-he Epistle of 1786 says : " We have received intelli- 
 gence from various quarters, that the testimony which we 
 have borne against slavery, continues to gain ground : and 
 we have great encouragement to persevere in our endea- 
 vors to excite a general abhorrence of that oppressive prac- 
 tice, p. .353. 
 
 Extract from the Minutes of the Yearly Meeting held in 
 Philadelphia, on 24th of Ninth month, and also by ad- 
 journments from the 10th to the 15th of the Twelfth 
 month, 1798, inclusive. 
 "And the enormous iniquity of enslaving and trading 
 
 in the persons of men, which crying abomination renew- 
 
 2* 
 
[ 18 ] 
 
 edly impressing the minds of many Friends with very 
 painful sensations, under the awful prospect of Divine 
 judgments manifest in the earth, it is desired that we may 
 individually labor for qualification to offer up effectual, 
 fervent prayers for the removal of this unspeakable wick- 
 edness from our land. And that the Meeting for Suffer- 
 ings, more especially, may suffer NO season to escape 
 unimproved wherein there may be an opening for the re- 
 lief of this grievously afflicted people, or for holding up 
 our religious testimony against every species of this 
 abominable evil." 
 
 Extracts from a petition from the meeting for Suffer- 
 ings, London, Eleventh month, 28th, 1783. 
 " We are engaged under a sense of duty, to bear a public- 
 testimony against a species of oppression which, under the 
 sanction of national authority, has long been exercised up- 
 on the natives of Africa, is grown up into a system of ty- 
 ranny, and is unhappily become a considerable branch of 
 the commerce of this kingdom : an oppression which in 
 the injustice of its origin, and the inhumanity of its pro- 
 gress, has not, we apprehend, been exceeded, or even 
 equalled, in the most barbarous ages. 
 
 " If we bring this matter home and as Job proposed to 
 his friends, " put our soul in their soul's stead :" if we 
 consider ourselves, and our children, as exposed to the 
 hardships which those people lie under, in supporting an 
 imaginary greatness : 
 
 " Did we in such case, behold an increase of luxury and 
 superfluity among our oppressors, and therewith feel an 
 increase of the weight of our burdens, and expect our 
 posterity to groan under oppression after us : 
 
 " When we were hunger-bitten, and could not have suf- 
 ficient nourishment, but saw them in fulness, pleasing 
 their taste with things fetched from far: 
 
 "When we were wearied with labor, denied the liberty 
 to rest, and saw them spending their time at ease ; when 
 garments answerable to our necessities, were denied us, 
 while we saw them clothed in that which was costly and 
 delicate ; 
 
 "Under such afflictions, how would thesepainful feelings 
 rise up as witnesses against their pretended devotion ! 
 
[ 19 ] 
 
 And if the name of their religion were mentioned in our 
 hearing, how would it sound in our ears, like a word which 
 signified self-exaltation and hardness of heart ! 
 
 " When a trade is carried on productive of much misery, 
 and they who suffer by it are some thousands of miles off, 
 the danger is the greater of not laying their sufferings to 
 heart. 
 
 " Many gfoans arise from dying men, which we hear not. 
 Many cries are uttered by widows and fatherless children, 
 which reach not our ears. Many cheeks are wet with 
 tears, and faces sad with unutterable grief, which we see 
 not. Cruel tyranny is encouraged. The hands of robbers 
 are strengthened ; and thousands reduced to the most ab- 
 ject slavery, who never injured us. 
 
 " Were we for the term of one year only to be eye- 
 witnesses to what passeth in getting these slaves ; was the 
 blood which is there shed, to be sprinkled on our garments ; 
 were the poor captives, bound with thongs, heavy laden 
 with elephants' teeth, to pass before our eyes, in their way 
 to the sea ; 
 
 " Were their bitter lamentations, day after day, to] ring 
 in our ears, and their mournful cries in the night, to hinder 
 us from sleeping ! 
 
 "Were we to hear the sound of the tumult, when the 
 slaves on board the ships attempt to kill the English, and 
 behold the issue of those bloody conflicts : what pious 
 man could be a witness to these things, and see a trade 
 carried on in this manner, without being deeply affected 
 with sorrow?' 
 
 " Our religious society in these kingdoms, and in North 
 America, have for many years tenderly sympathized with 
 this unhappy people, under their complicated sufferings, 
 and have endeavored to procure them relief : nor has their 
 cause been without other advocates ; whose numbers we 
 have with much satisfaction observed to increase. The 
 expectation of many, who are anxiously concerned for the 
 suppression of this national evil, is now under Providence, 
 fixed upon the wise and humane interposition of the legis- 
 lature ; to whom, with dutiful submission, we earnestly 
 recommend the serious consideration of this important 
 subject. * * * That so the blessing of those who 
 are ready to perish may rest upon you, and this nation 
 
[ 20 ] 
 
 may no longer, on their account, remain obnoxious to the 
 righteous judgments of the Lord, who, in the most awful 
 manner, declared by his prophet, * That the land should 
 tremble, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein, for 
 the iniquity of those who oppress the poor, and crush the 
 needy ;' and who likewise pronounced a ' woe unto him 
 him, that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his 
 chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbor's service 
 without wages, and giveth him not for his work. 
 
 Signed by order of the Meeting for Sufferings, London, 
 the 28th day of the Eleventh month, 1783, by 
 
 John Ady, 
 Clerk to the Meeting." 
 
 EXTRACT FROM JACOB LINDSEY'S LETTER. 
 
 He was sold by his master to one H- ,who bought 
 
 in slaves for the Georgia monsters ; to whom he was sold, 
 and in their possession for fifteen days : after which, he 
 cut his chain, and made a marvellous escape. 
 
 Oh ! surely I may say, I shudder, and my tears involun- 
 tarily steal from my eyes, for my poor oppressed, afflicted, 
 tormented, black brethren ; — hunted, frighted to see a 
 white man, — torn from every source of comfort that is 
 worth living for in this stage of being. The tears, — the 
 groans, — the sighs of these, have scarcely ascended to 
 the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth ; — and as a thick cloud, is 
 awfully suspended over this land. I tenderly and trem- 
 blingly feel for poor masters, involved in the difficulty. 
 I am awfully awakened into fear, for our poor country, 
 with the language, ** I gave her time and place to repent ; 
 but she repented not: therefore I, saith the Supreme Arbi- 
 ter of nations, Judge of all the earth, will," &c. Why do 
 I thus digress ? But to return. Inclosed is a piece of Skin- 
 ner's vest, as a token to Fanny his wife, that he is alive, 
 and that there is no deception in the business ; more sure 
 than the token to Jacob, of the death of poor Joseph ! 
 
 Oh ! the Georgia Ishmaelities ! How abhorrent their 
 trade ! How dark their poor souls, (O my soul, come not 
 thou into their secret !) in sacrificing at mammon 's altar. 
 
 Extracts from EJias HickS Observations on Slavery. 
 " I shall only add, as a farther apology for the present 
 edition, that the evil still continues : that there are still 
 
[ 21 ] 
 
 slave holders, and consumers of the produce of the labor 
 of slaves, wrested from them by violence." 
 
 " And as the slave holder can have no moral right what- 
 ever to the man he styles his slave, nor to the produce of 
 his labor, he cannot possibly convey any to a second per- 
 son by any transfer he can make : for, having nothing but 
 a criminal possession himself, he can convey nothing to a 
 second person but the same possession : and should this 
 possession be continued through a line of transfer to the 
 twentieth person, still it would be nothing more than the 
 same criminal possession that was vested in the first pos- 
 sessor, and would convey no moral right whatever." 
 
 " For, although the first possessor committed the act of 
 violence, when he took from the man he styles his slave 
 his liberty, and compelled him to work, and by the same 
 cruel force took from him the produce of his labor ; yet 
 every purchaser of such slave and the produce of his la- 
 bor, if he is apprized of the criminal circumstance attend- 
 ing it, is as guilty as the first perpetrator ; and should such 
 slave and the produce of his labor pass through the hands 
 of twenty persons, all knowing at the time of transfer the 
 criminal circumstances attending, each would be guilty of 
 the entire crime of the first perpetrator. This being as- 
 sented to, and I conceive it is incontrovertible, I have a 
 hope that this edition may produce a good effect, and tend 
 to raise up many more faithful advocates in the cause of 
 this deeply oppressed people, who may be willing to suf- 
 fer every necessary privation, rather than be guilty of the 
 least thing that may, in any degree, possibly strengthen 
 the hands of their oppressors. I therefore recommend 
 this little treatise to the candid and impartial consideration 
 of the reader, and subscribe myself his sincere friend, 
 
 Elias Hicks." 
 
 " Q. Does the highway robber, that meets his fellow- 
 citizen on the highway, and robs him of all the property 
 he has in his present possession, and then leaves him at 
 liberty, without injuring his person, commit as high an 
 act of felony, as he that steals or buys, or takes a man by 
 violence, and reduces him to the wretched and degraded 
 state of a slave for life ? 
 
 " A. No ! in no wise. Which answer is founded on 
 the self-evident proposition, that it is more criminal to rob 
 
[ 22 ] 
 
 a man of his liberty and property, than only to rob him of 
 his propertv. 
 
 " Q. Does it lessen the criminality and wickedness of 
 reducing our fellow creatures to the abject state of slavery, 
 and continuing them therein, because the practice is tole- 
 rated by the laws of the country we live in? 
 
 " A. No ! by no means. Because, every rational crea- 
 ture knows, or ought to know, that no law of men or na- 
 tions, can altar the nature of immutable justice. The 
 criminality remains as great in all cases of slavery, when 
 inflicted without any criminality of the individual made a 
 slave, under the sanction of law, as when it is not; and in 
 some cases, greater : as in the instance of those govern- 
 ments, where they are not only guilty of the cruelty and 
 oppression of reducing, by mere power, without any pos- 
 sible plea of right, their fellow creatures who have equal- 
 ly a right with themselves to liberty, and the purchase of 
 redemption by a Saviour's blood, to the abject and wretch- 
 ed state of slaves, but are adding sin to sin, by making and 
 continuing cruel laws to hold them still longer under the 
 galling yoke. 
 
 "Q. Would it be right and consistent with justice and 
 equity, for the legislatures of the several states, and others 
 concerned, to make laws entirely to abolish slavery in 
 their respective states? 
 
 "A. It would, doubtless, be entirely right, and perfectly 
 consistent with equity and justice to make such laws ; and 
 nothing, I apprehend, can exculpate them from the charge 
 of blood-guiltiness short of so doing : as, no doubt, many 
 of the poor victims of slavery suffer daily to the shedding 
 of their blood, under the hands of some of the cruel men 
 who pretend to be their masters, because they do not at 
 all times immediately submit to their cruel and arbitrary 
 wills. 
 
 " Q. Would it not give just occasion for those who still 
 have slaves in their possession, and especially to such as 
 have lately purchased them, at a dear rate, to complain of 
 wrong in thus taking from them, without their consent, 
 what they esteem as their real property ? 
 
 " A. The making and enforcing such laws cannot pos- 
 sibly give just occasion for any such complaint; as it is 
 impossible for any man to gain any just property in a ra- 
 
[ 23 ] 
 
 tional being, as a slave, without his consent ; for, neither 
 the slave dealer nor the planter have any moral right to 
 the person of him they style their slave, to his labor, or to 
 the produce of it; so, they can convey no right in such 
 person, nor in the produce of his labor to another ; and 
 whatever number of hands they may pass through, (if the 
 criminal circumstances appertaining thereto be known to 
 them at the time of the transfer,) they can only have a 
 criminal possession ; and the money paid either for the 
 slave or for the produce of his labor, is paid to obtain that 
 criminal possession, and can confer no moral right what- 
 ever ; and if the death of the person called a slave, be oc- 
 casioned by the criminal possession, the criminal possessor 
 is guilty of murder; and we who have knowingly done 
 any act which might occasion his being in that situation, 
 are accessaries to the murder, before the fact ; as by re- 
 ceiving the produce of his labor, we are accessaries to the 
 robbery after the fact. Therefore, I conceive, it must ap- 
 pear clear and agreeable to truth and justice, that a man 
 who should dare to be so hardy as to buy a fellow creature, 
 whose liberty is withheld from him by violence and in- 
 justice, ought not only to be obliged to set him free, and 
 to forfeit the purchase money, but likewise to make full 
 satisfaction to the person he had injured by such pur- 
 chase." 
 
 Most of these faithful laborers have long since been call- 
 ed from works to rewards. They were far in advance of 
 the general feeling on the subject, and labored ardently to 
 awaken sympathy in the public mind. We, their de- 
 scendants, have lived to see the seed which they have 
 sown, spring up in a strong and greatly increasing interest, 
 among mankind at large. The subject has now taken a 
 deep hold of the public mind ; the axe of Truth has been 
 laid at the root of the corrupt tree of Slavery; already 
 we hear the agitation of its foliage as the wind of investi- 
 gation whistles through it ; already have its very extreme 
 branches begun to tremble ; already do we hear the voice 
 of the cracking of the tree, which foretells its fall. And 
 shall we, the descendants of Fox, as unworthy sons of 
 Woolman and Benezet, falter on account of the agitation 
 which is, as it were, shaking the very earth ? Fear not. 
 
[ 24 ] 
 
 When the tree falls, it may be with a crash that will re- 
 sound from one end of the land to the other. The intro- 
 duction of the spiritual dispensation of the Christian reli- 
 gion was not effected without agitation. — -The revival of 
 spiritual Christianity — the peaceable doctrines of Quaker- 
 ism — were not promulgated without excitement and deter- 
 mined opposition. Truth and error, in their controversy, 
 have ever, for a time, struggled fiercely for the mastery; 
 but when faithfully adhered to, truth has always gained 
 the victory. Every reform, in its beginning, has excited 
 opposition and persecution — and we cannot suppose that 
 the righteous cause of Universal Libery will achieve a 
 victory over the injustice of Slavery, and the established 
 and wicked customs and prejudices of men, with less ex- 
 citement. 
 
 Then, let us press forward with hope and confidence in 
 the justice of the Creator, trusting that he will smile upon 
 our endeavors to carry forward this reformation. Let us 
 be found in the fast that he has chosen, in loosing the 
 bands of wickedness, in breaking every yoke, and letting 
 the oppressed go free. 
 
 54 W 
 

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