The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808), Volume IClarkson, Thomas
History
The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808), Volume I
Clarkson, Thomas
Slave trade -- Africa
In the year 1774, we find the same yearly meeting legislating again on the
same subject. By the preceding resolution they, who became offenders, were
subjected only to exclusion from the meetings for discipline, and from the
privilege of contributing to the pecuniary occasions of the Society; but by
the resolution of the present year, all members concerned in importing,
selling, purchasing, giving, or transferring Negro or other slaves, or
otherwise acting in such manner as to continue them in slavery beyond the
term limited by law[A] or custom, were directed to be excluded from
membership or disowned. At this meeting also all the members of it were
cautioned and advised against acting as executors or administrators to
estates, where slaves were bequeathed, or likely to be detained in bondage.
[Footnote A: This alludes to the term of servitude for white persons in
these provinces.]
In the year 1776, the same yearly meeting carried the matter still further.
It was then enacted, That the owners of slaves, who refused to execute
proper instruments for giving them their freedom, were to be disowned
likewise.
In 1778 it was enacted by the same meeting, That the children of those, who
had been set free by members, should be tenderly advised, and have a
suitable education given them.
It is not necessary to proceed further on this subject. It may be
sufficient to say, that from this time, the Minutes of the yearly meeting
for Pennsylvania and the Jerseys exhibit proofs of an almost incessant
attention, year after year[A], to the means not only of wiping away the
stain of slavery from their religious community, but of promoting the
happiness of those restored to freedom, and of their posterity also. And
as the yearly meeting of Pennsylvania and the Jerseys set this bright
example, so those of New England, New York, Maryland, Virginia, and of
the Carolinas and Georgia, in process of time followed it.
[Footnote A: Thus in 1779, 1780,-1,-2,-4,-5,-6. The members also of this
meeting petitioned their own legislature on this subject both in 1783 and
in 1786.]
But whilst the Quakers were making these exertions at their different
yearly meetings in America, as a religious body, to get rid both of the
commerce and slavery of their fellow-creatures, others in the same
profession were acting as individuals (that is, on their own grounds and
independently of any influence from their religious communion) in the same
cause, whose labours it will now be proper, in a separate narrative, to
detail.
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