The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition - Thomas Clarkson
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[Footnote A: This short sketch of the life and labours of John Woolman,
is made up from his Journal.]
At a time prior to his entering upon the ministry, being in low
circumstances, he agreed for wages to "attend shop for a person at Mount
Holly, and to keep his books." In this situation we discover, by an
occurrence that happened, that he had thought seriously on the subject,
and that he had conceived proper views of the Christian unlawfulness of
slavery. "My employer," says he, "having a Negro woman, sold her, and
desired me to write a bill of sale, the man being waiting who bought
her. The thing was sudden, and though the thought of writing an
instrument of slavery for one of my fellow-creatures made me feel
uneasy, yet I remembered I was hired by the year, that it was my master
who directed me to do it, and that it was an elderly man, a member of
our society, who bought her. So through weakness I gave way and wrote,
but, at executing it, I was so afflicted in my mind, that I said before
my master and the friend, that I believed slave-keeping to be a practice
inconsistent with the Christian religion. This in some degree abated my
uneasiness; yet, as often as I reflected seriously upon it, I thought I
should have been clearer, if I had desired to have been excused from it,
as a thing against my conscience; for such it was. And some time after
this, a young man of our society spoke to me to write a conveyance of a
slave to him, he having lately taken a Negro into his house. I told him
I was not easy to write it; for though many of our meeting, and in other
places, kept slaves, I still believed the practice was not right, and
desired to be excused from the writing. I spoke to him in good-will; and
he told me that keeping slaves was not altogether agreeable to his mind,
but that the slave being a gift to his wife he had accepted of her."
We may easily conceive that a person so scrupulous and tender on this
subject, (as indeed John Woolman was on all others,) was in the way of
becoming in time more eminently serviceable to his oppressed
fellow-creatures. We have seen already the good seed sown in his heart,
and it seems to have wanted only providential seasons and occurrences to
be brought into productive fruit. Accordingly we find that a journey,
which he took as a minister of the Gospel in 1746 through the provinces
of Maryland, Virginia, and, North Carolina, which were then more noted
than others for the number of slaves in them, contributed to prepare him
as an instrument for the advancement of this great cause. The following
are his own observations upon this journey:--"Two things were remarkable
to me in this journey; first, in regard to my entertainment. When I ate,
drank, and lodged free-cost, with people who lived in ease on the hard
labour of their slaves, I felt uneasy; and, as my mind was inward to the
Lord, I found, from place to place, this uneasiness return upon me at
times through the whole visit. Where the masters bore a good share of
the burden and lived frugally, so that their servants were well provided
for; and their labour moderate, I felt more easy; but where they lived
in a costly way, and laid heavy burdens on their slaves, my exercise was
often great, and I frequently had conversations with them in private
concerning it. Secondly, this trade of importing slaves from their
native country being much encouraged among them, and the white people
and their children so generally living without much labour, was
frequently the subject of my serious thoughts: and I saw in these
southern provinces so many vices and corruptions, increased by this
trade and this way of life, that it appeared to me as a gloom over the
land."
From the year 1747 to the year 1758, he seems to have been occupied
chiefly as a minister of religion, but in the latter year he published a
work upon slave-keeping; and in the same year, while travelling within
the compass of his own monthly meeting, a circumstance happened which
kept alive his attention to the same Subjects.
"About this time" says he, "a person at some distance lying sick, his
brother came to me to write his will. I knew he had slaves, and asking
his brother was told he intended to leave them as slaves to his
children. As writing was a profitable employ, and as offending sober
people was disagreeable to my inclination, I was straitened in my mind,
but as I looked to the Lord he inclined my heart to his testimony; and I
told the man that I believed the practice of continuing slavery to this
people was not right, and that I had a scruple in my mind against doing
writings of that kind; that, though many in our society kept them as
slaves, still I was not easy to be concerned in it, and desired to be
excused from going to write the will. I spoke to him in the fear of the
Lord; and he made no reply to what I said, but went away: he also had
some concerns in the practice, and I thought he was displeased with me.
In this case I had a confirmation, that acting contrary to present
outward interest from a motive of Divine love, and in regard to truth
and righteousness, opens the way to a treasure better than silver, and
to a friendship exceeding the friendship of men."
From 1753 to 1755, two circumstances of a similar kind took place, which
contributed greatly to strengthen him in the path he had taken; for in
both these cases the persons who requested him to make their wills were
so impressed by the principle upon which he refused them, and by his
manner of doing it, that they bequeathed liberty to their slaves.
In the year 1756, he made a religious visit to several of the society in
Long Island. Here it was that the seed, now long fostered by the genial
influences of Heaven, began to burst forth into fruit; Till this time he
seems to have been a passive instrument, attending only to such
circumstances as came in his way on this subject. But now he became an
active one, looking out for circumstances for the exercise of his
labours.
"My mind," says he; "was deeply engaged in this visit, both in public
and private; and at several places, observing that members kept slaves,
I found myself under a necessity, in a friendly way, to labour with
them, on that subject, expressing, as the way opened, the inconsistency
of that practice with the parity of the Christian religion, and the ill
effects of it as manifested amongst us."
In the year 1757, he felt, his mind so deeply interested on the same
subject, that he resolved to travel over Maryland, Virginia, and North
Carolina, in order to try to convince persons, principally in his own
society, of the inconsistency of holding slaves. He joined his brother
with him in this arduous service. Having passed the Susquehanna into
Maryland, he began to experience great agitation of mind. "Soon after I
entered this province," says he, "a deep and painful exercise came upon
me, which I often had some feeling of since my mind was drawn towards
these parts, and with which I had acquainted my brother, before we
agreed to join as companions."
"As the people in this and the southern provinces live much on the
labour of slaves, many of whom are used hardly, my concern was that I
might attend with singleness of heart to the voice of the true Shepherd,
and be so supported, as to remain unmoved at the faces of men."
It is impossible for me to follow him in detail, through this long and
interesting journey, when I consider the bounds I have prescribed to
myself in this work. I shall say, therefore, what I propose to offer
generally, and in a few words.
It appears that he conversed with persons occasionally, who were not of
his own society, with a view of answering their arguments, and of
endeavouring to evince the wickedness and impolicy of slavery. In
discoursing with these, however strenuous he might appear, he seems
never to have departed from a calm, modest, and yet dignified and even
friendly demeanour. At the public meetings for discipline, held by his
own society in these provinces, he endeavoured to display the same
truths, and in the same manner, but particularly to the elders of his
own society, exhorting them, as the most conspicuous rank, to be careful
of their conduct, and to give a bright example in the liberation of
their slaves. He visited, also, families for the same purpose: and he
had the well-earned satisfaction of finding his admonitions kindly
received by some, and of seeing a disposition in others to follow the
advice he had given them.
In the year 1758, he attended the yearly meeting at Philadelphia, where
he addressed his brethren on the propriety of dealing with such members
as should hereafter purchase slaves. On the discussion of this point he
spoke a second time, and this to such effect that, he had the
satisfaction at this meeting to see minutes made more fully than any
before, and a committee appointed for the advancement of the great
object, to which he had now been instrumental in turning the attention
of many, and to witness a considerable spreading of the cause. In the
same year, also, he joined himself with two others of the society to
visit such members of it as possessed slaves in Chester county. In this
journey he describes himself to have met with several who were pleased
with his visit, but to have found difficulties with others, towards
whom, however, he felt a sympathy and tenderness, on account of their
being entangled by the spirit of the world.
In the year 1759, he visited several of the society who held slaves in
Philadelphia. In about three months afterwards, he travelled there
again, in company with John Churchman, to see others under similar
circumstances. He then went to different places on the same errand. In
this last journey he went alone. After this he joined himself to John
Churchman again, but he confined his labours to his own province. Here
he had the pleasure of finding that the work prospered. Soon after this
he took Samuel Eastburne as a coadjutor, and pleaded the cause of the
poor Africans with many of the society in Bucks county, who held them in
bondage there.
In the year 1760, he travelled, in company with his friend Samuel
Eastburne, to Rhode Island, to promote the same object. This island had
been long noted for its trade to Africa for slaves. He found at Newport,
the great sea-port town belonging to it, that a number of them had been
lately imported. He felt his mind deeply impressed on this account. He
was almost over-powered in consequence of it, and became ill. He thought
once of prompting a petition to the legislature, to discourage all such
importations in future. He then thought of going and speaking to the
House of Assembly, which was then sitting; but he was discouraged from
both these proceedings. He held, however, conference with many of his
own society in the meeting-house chamber, where the subject of his visit
was discussed on both sides with a calm and peaceable spirit. Many of
those present manifested the concern they felt at their former
practices, and others a desire of taking suitable care of their slaves
at their decease. From Newport he proceeded to Nantucket; but observing
the members of the society there to have few or no slaves, he exhorted
them to persevere in abstaining from the use of them, and returned home.
In the year 1761, he visited several families in Pennsylvania, and, in
about three months afterwards, others about Shrewsbury and Squan in New
Jersey. On his return he added a part to the treatise before published
on the keeping of care which had been growing upon him for some years.
In the year 1762, he printed, published, and distributed this treatise.
In 1767, he went on foot to the western shores of the same province on a
religious visit. After having crossed the Susquehanna, his old feelings
returned to him; for coming amongst people living in outward ease and
greatness, chiefly on the labour of slaves, his heart was much affected,
and he waited with humble resignation to learn how he should further
perform his duty to this injured people. The travelling on foot, though
it was agreeable to the state of his mind, he describes to have been
wearisome to his body. He felt himself weakly at times, in consequence
of it, but yet continued to travel on. At one of the quarterly meetings
of the society, being in great sorrow and heaviness, and under deep
exercise on account of the miseries of the poor Africans, he expressed
himself freely to those present, who held them in bondage. He expatiated
on the tenderness and loving-kindness of the apostles, as manifested in
labours, perils, and sufferings, towards the poor Gentiles, and
contracted their treatment of the Gentiles with it, whom he described in
the persons of their slaves; and was much satisfied with the result of
his discourse.
From this time we collect little more, from his journal concerning him,
than that, in 1772, he embarked for England on a religious visit. After
his arrival there, he travelled through many counties, preaching in
different meetings of the society, till he came to the city of York. But
even here, though he was far removed from the sight of those whose
interests he had so warmly espoused, he was not forgetful of their
wretched condition. At the quarterly meeting for that county, he brought
their case before, those present in an affecting manner. He exhorted
these to befriend their cause. He remarked that as they, the society,
when under outward sufferings, had often found a concern to lay them
before the legislature, and thereby, in the Lord's time, had obtained
relief; so he recommended this oppressed part of the creation to their
notice, that they might, as, the way opened, represent their sufferings
as individuals, if not as a religious society, to those in authority in
this land. This was the last opportunity that he had of interesting
himself in behalf of this injured people for soon afterwards he was
seized with the small-pox at the house of a friend in the city of York,
where he died.
The next person belonging to the society of the Quakers, who laboured in
behalf of the oppressed Africans, was Anthony Benezet. He was born
before, and he lived after, John Woolman; of course he was contemporary
with him. I place him after John Woolman, because he was not so much
known as a labourer, till two or three years after the other had begin
to move in the same cause.
Anthony Benezet was born at St. Quintin, in Picardy, of a respectable
family, in the year 1713. His father was one of the many Protestants
who, in consequence of the persecutions which followed the revocation of
the edict of Nantz, sought an asylum in foreign countries. After a short
stay in Holland, he settled, with his wife and children, in London, in
1715.
Anthony Benezet having received from his father a liberal education,
served an apprenticeship in an eminent mercantile house in London. In
1731, however, he removed with his family to Philadelphia, where he
joined in profession with the Quakers. His three brothers then engaged
in trade, and made considerable pecuniary acquisitions in it. He himself
might have partaken both of their concerns and of their prosperity; but
he did not feel himself at liberty to embark in their undertakings. He
considered the accumulation of wealth as of no importance, when compared
with the enjoyment of doing good; and he chose the humble situation of a
schoolmaster, as according best with this notion, believing, that by
endeavouring to train up youth in knowledge and virtue, he should become
more extensively useful than in any other way to his fellow-creatures.
He had not been long in his new situation, before he manifested such an
uprightness of conduct, such a courtesy of manners, such a purity of
intention, and such a spirit of benevolence, that he attracted the
notice, and gained the good opinion, of the inhabitants among whom he
lived. He had ready access to them, in consequence, upon all occasions;
and, if there were any whom he failed to influence at any of these
times, he never went away without the possession of their respect.
In the year 1756, when a considerable number of French families were
removed from Acadia into Pennsylvania, on account of some political
suspicions, he felt deeply interested about them. In a country where few
understood their language, they were wretched and helpless; but Anthony
Benezet endeavoured to soften the rigour of their situation, by his kind
attention towards them. He exerted himself, also, in their behalf, by
procuring many contributions for them, which, by the consent of his
fellow-citizens, were intrusted to his care.
As the principle of benevolence, when duly cultivated, brings forth
fresh shoots, and becomes enlarged, so we find this amiable person
extending the sphere of his usefulness by becoming an advocate for the
oppressed African race. For this service he seems to have been
peculiarly qualified. Indeed, as in all great works, a variety of
talents is necessary to bring them to perfection, so Providence seems to
prepare different men as instruments, with dispositions and
qualifications so various, that each, in pursuing that line which seems
to suit him best, contributes to furnish those parts which, when put
together, make up a complete whole. In this point of view, John Woolman
found in Anthony Benezet the coadjutor whom, of all others, the cause
required. The former had occupied himself principally on the subject of
slavery. The latter went to the root of the evil, and more frequently
attacked the trade. The former chiefly confined his labours to America,
and chiefly to those of his own society there. The latter, when he
wrote, did not write for America only, but for Europe also, and
endeavoured to spread a knowledge and hatred of the traffic through the
great society of the world.
One of the means which Anthony Benezet took to promote the cause in
question, (and an effectual one it proved, as far as it went,) was to
give his scholars a due knowledge and proper impressions concerning it.
Situated as they were likely to be in after-life, in a country where,
slavery, was a custom, he thus prepared many, and this annually, for the
promotion of his plans.
To enlighten others, and to give them a similar bias, he had recourse to
different measures from time to time. In the almanacs published annually
in Philadelphia, he procured articles to be inserted, which he believed
would attract the notice of the reader, and make him pause, at least for
a while, as to the licitness of, the Slave Trade. He wrote also, as he
saw occasion, in the public papers of the day. From small things he
proceeded to greater. He collected, at length, further information on
the subject, and, winding it up with observations and reflections, he
produced several little tracts, which he circulated successively (but
generally at his, own expense), as he considered them adapted to the
temper and circumstances of the times.
In the course of this his employment, having found some who had approved
his tracts, and, to whom, on that account, he wished to write, and
sending his tracts to others, to whom he thought it proper to introduce
them by letter, he found himself engaged in a correspondence which much
engrossed his time, but which proved of great importance in procuring
many advocates for his cause.
In the year 1762, when he had obtained a still greater store of
information, he published a larger work. This, however, he entitle _A
short Account of that part of Africa inhabited by the Negroes_ In 1767
he published _A Caution and Warning to Great Britain and her colonies on
the calamitous state of the enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions_;
and soon after this appeared, _An Historical Account of Guinea, its
Situation, Produce, and the general Disposition of its Inhabitants: with
an Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Slave Trade, its Nature,
and Calamitous Effects._ This pamphlet contained a clear and distinct
development of the subject, from the best authorities. It contained
also, the sentiments of many enlightened upon it; and it became
instrumental beyond any other book ever before published, in
disseminating a proper knowledge and detestation of this trade.
Anthony Benezet may be considered as one of the most zealous, vigilant,
and active advocates which the cause of the oppressed Africans ever had.
He seemed to have been born and to have lived for the promotion of it
and therefore he never omitted any the least opportunity of serving it.
If a person called upon him who was going a journey his first thoughts
usually were how he could make him an instrument in its favour; he
either gave him tracts to distribute or he sent letters by him, or he
gave him some commission on the subject; so that he was the means of
employing several persons at the same time, in various parts of America;
in advancing the work he had undertaken.
In the same manner he availed himself of every other circumstance, as
far as he could, to the same end. When he heard that Mr. Granville Sharp
had obtained; in the year 1772, the noble verdict in the cause of
Somerset the slave, he opened a correspondence with him which he kept
up, that there might be an union of action between them for the future,
as far as it could be effected, and that they might each give
encouragement to the other to proceed.
He opened also a correspondence with George Whitfield and John Wesley
that these might assist him in promoting the cause of the oppressed.
He wrote also a letter to the Countess of Huntingdon on the following
subject:--She had founded a college, at the recommendation of George
Whitfield, called the Orphan-house near Savannah, in Georgia, and had
endowed it. The object of this institution was to furnish scholastic
instruction to the poor, and to prepare some of them for the ministry.
George Whitfield, ever attentive to the cause of the poor Africans,
thought that this institution might have been useful to them also; but
soon after his death, they who succeeded him bought slaves, and these in
unusual numbers to extend the rice and indigo plantations belonging to
the college. The letter then in question was written by Anthony Benezet,
in order to lay before the Countess, as a religious woman, the misery
she was occasioning in Africa, by allowing the managers of her college
in Georgia to give encouragement to the Slave Trade. The Countess
replied, that such a measure should never have her countenance, and that
she would take care to prevent it.
On discovering that the Abbe Raynal had brought out his celebrated work,
in which he manifested a tender feeling in behalf of the injured
Africans, he entered into a correspondence with him, hoping to make him
yet more useful to their cause.
Finding, also, in the year 1783 that the Slave Trade, which had greatly
declined during the American war, was reviving, he addressed a pathetic
letter to our Queen, (as I mentioned in the last chapter,) who, on
hearing the high character of the writer of it from Benjamin West,
received it with marks of peculiar condescension and attention. The
following is a copy of it:--
TO CHARLOTTE, QUEEN OF GREAT BRITAIN.
Impressed with a sense of religious duty, and encouraged by the
opinion generally entertained of thy benevolent disposition to
succor the distressed, I take the liberty; very respectfully, to
offer to thy perusal some tracts, which, I believe, faithfully
describe the suffering condition of many hundred thousands of
our fellow-creatures of the African race, great numbers of whom,
rent from every tender connexion in life, are annually taken
from their native land; to endure, in the American islands and
plantations, a most rigorous and cruel slavery; whereby many,
very many of them, are brought to a melancholy and untimely end.
When it is considered that the inhabitants of Great Britain, who
are themselves so eminently blessed in the enjoyment of
religious and civil liberty, have long been, and yet are, very
deeply concerned in this flagrant violation of the common rights
of mankind, and that even its national authority is exerted in
support of the African Slave Trade, there is much reason to
apprehend that this has been, and, as long as the evil exists,
will continue to be, an occasion of drawing down the Divine
displeasure on the nation and its dependencies. May these
considerations induce thee to interpose thy kind endeavours in
behalf of this greatly injured people, whose abject situation
gives them an additional claim to the pity and assistance of the
generous mind, inasmuch as they are altogether deprived of the
means of soliciting effectual relief for themselves; that so
thou mayest not only be a blessed instrument in the hand of him
'by whom kings reign and princes decree justice,' to avert the
awful judgments by which the empire has already been so
remarkably shaken, but that the blessings of thousands ready to
perish may come upon thee, at a time when the superior
advantages attendant on thy situation in this world will no
longer be of any avail to thy consolation and support.