The work of these visiting committees is as remarkable as any in the history of slavery. Self-sacrificing people who had freed their own slaves now abandoned their interests and set out to persuade others to give negroes the freedom thought to be due them. In southeastern Pennsylvania are old diaries almost untouched for a century and a half which bear witness of characters odd and heroic; which contain the story of men and women sincere, brave, and unfaltering, who united quiet mysticism with the zeal of a crusader. The committees undertook to persuade a whole population to give up its slaves. There is no doubt that the task was a difficult one. Again and again the writers speak of obstacles overcome. They tell of owners who would not be convinced, who acknowledged that slavery was wrong, and promised that they would buy no more slaves, but who affirmed that they would keep such as they had. The diaries speak of repeated visits, of the arguments employed, of slow and gradual yielding, and of final triumph. If ever Christian work was carried on in the spirit of Christ, it was when John Woolman, Isaac Jackson, James Moon, and their fellow missionaries put an end to slavery among the Quakers of Pennsylvania.[228] The penalties denounced by the Meeting were imposed with firmness. In 1761 the Chester Quarterly Meeting dealt with a member for having bought and sold a slave.[229] Through this and the following years there are many records in the Monthly Meetings of manumissions, voluntary and persuaded; record being made in each case to ensure the negro his freedom.[230] In 1774 the Philadelphia Meeting resolved that Friends who held slaves beyond the age at which white apprentices were discharged, should be treated as disorderly persons.[231] The work of abolition was practically completed in 1776 when the resolution passed that members who persisted in holding slaves were to be disowned.[232] If this is understood in connection with the fact that in the Meetings questions were rarely decided except by almost unanimous vote, it is clear that so far as the Friends were concerned slavery was nearly extinct. This was almost absolutely accomplished by 1780.[233] The wholesale private abolition of slavery by the Friends of Pennsylvania is one of those occurrences over which the historian may well linger. It was not delayed until slavery had become unprofitable,[234] nor was it forced through any violent hostility. It was a result attained merely by calm, steady persuasion, and a disposition to obey the dictates of conscience unflinchingly. As such it is among the grandest examples of the triumph of principle and ideal righteousness over self-interest.[235] It may well be doubted whether any body of men and women other than the Friends were capable of such conduct at this time.[236]