Workshop 11 : Quakers and Slavery - 06/07/2026
Karen Tibbals
Instructor
Slavery and Quakers: June workshop, Quakertown Monthly Meeting
Quakers have a rich and mixed history of slavery. Many British Quakers who had money invested in ships that traded with the New World, which included ships which transported slaves.
But they were the first and most vocal religious group to be against slavery. On his trip to the New World, George Fox witness the slave trade in Barbados. He wrote a pamphlet where he advocated that Friends should 'deal mildly and gently' with their slaves, and that 'after certain years of servitude they should make them free'. (1671) His Irish companion, William Edmundson was more radical, and by 1675 he had condemned slavery outright in New Bedford, a center of the slave trade. The culmination amongst British Friends came in 1727, when London Yearly Meeting formally minuted its censure of Friends dealing in slaves. Although there were several other efforts, it took a group of Anglicans to prompt Britain outlawing slavery in1807.
https://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/55/Anti-Slavery-in-Britain
But Quakers in Britain didn’t have to deal with the reality of enslavement the way that Quakers in America did.
Anthony Benezet (January 31, 1713 – May 3, 1784) was a French-born American abolitionist and teacher who was active in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A prominent member of the abolitionist movement in North America, Benezet founded one of the world's first anti-slavery societies, the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage. He also founded the first public school for girls in North America and the Negro School at Philadelphia, which operated into the nineteenth century. Benezet advocated for kind treatment of animals, racial equality and universal love.
Benjamin Lay:(January 26, 1682 – February 8, 1759)A hunchback with a protruding chest, Lay was roughly four feet tall and referred to himself as "Little Benjamin". He operated a small farm, which produced fruit, flax and wool, he refused to consume any product made from slave or animal labour and lived a frugal, vegetarian lifestyle, which continued after his wife Sarah died in 1735. While working as a merchant, his shock at the brutal treatment of slaves in Barbados led Lay to develop lifelong abolitionist principles, which were reinforced by his humanitarian ideals and Quaker beliefs. Lay was also a prolific writer, writing books and pamphlets that advocated the abolition of slavery. Lay developed a hostile relationship with American Quakers, many of whom owned slaves, frequently disrupting their meetings with demonstrations to protest against slavery. Going from meeting to meeting in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Benjamin Lay preached against slavery, he pulled various stunts to dramatize the plight of the slave. These ranged from laying down in a doorway in a meetinghouse from which he had been expelled to the notorious “bladder of blood” prank in 1738. Lay’s antislavery manuscript published without approval the same year, resulting in Lay’s disownment.
It took many attempts by those with a conscience to get PYM to abolish slavery. Despite the fact that William Penn intended to set a precedent that Negros should be released after a set period of time in his Pennsylvania which could have set a precedent, the plan was not executed and William Penn appeared to abdicate any responsibility in this matter. There were multiple people who asked for PYM to abolish slavery, throughout the years:
· a small Quaker gathering in Germantown, Pennsylvania who felt compelled to make a statement against slavery in 1688
· George Keith and his followers were next to be recorded as writing against slavery in 1693
· in 1696, two more Quakers in Philadelphia are recorded as having troubles in their own conscience about slavery – William Southeby, who in his message drew from Fox’s Gospel Family-Order from Barbados, but whose actual speech has been lost, and Cadwalader Morgan who derived his belief in true Quaker fashion from his own experience with God, and who had someone else write down his speech for him. These two friends had some effect, Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting finally taking an action, advising “that Friends be careful not to encourage the bringing in of any more Negroes.”
· Two years later, Robert Pyle, a prominent member of Concord Meeting in Pennsylvania, called for a definite date for Quakers to free their slaves. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting responded by again working towards eliminating imports of slaves, this time attempting to partner with the Barbados meeting to keep slaves from being imported.
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting was unique at this point in that its members also comprised the governing body of the colony. In their enthusiasm to stop the slave trade, the Provincial assembly of the colony turned to government action at this point, levying a duty on importation of Negroes in 1700, increasing it twice in 1705 and 1710. In 1711 they took the bold step of outlawing slave importation, but gave in to a veto by the English Privy Council and vacated this action. The messages against slavery among members continued after this.
· Chester Monthly Meeting were next to bring up the issue up to the Yearly Meeting, in 1711. After their repeated efforts, the Yearly Meeting finally appointed a committee in 1715 to answer the plea. The committee’s epistle asked for Friends to treat their slaves well, but to withhold judgment about “keeping servants.” This did not satisfy Chester Friends, who returned the following year.
· William Southeby, first recorded as condemning slavery in 1696, and who had signed the letter to Barbados in 1698, decided more needed to be done. He had gone outside the hedge, taking his plea to the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly in 1712, who rejected his request to ban slavery all together. Frustrated with the inaction of both the Assembly and the Yearly Meeting, he published a paper denouncing slaveholders and Quakers who took no action. Initially contrite about going against the Religious Society of Friends, when the Yearly Meeting refused in 1716 to address Chester Friends’ concerns, Southeby published another paper.
Why was Woolman’s pamphlet approved for publication when so many others hadn’t been? Clearly something was different. One factor was John Woolman’s tone. In contrast to other previous documents, Woolman’s was earnest and loving, more persuasive and less strident. Further, it seems Woolman’s efforts benefited from the cumulative effect of those prophets who had gone before him.
Historian Jean Soderlund has identified that another key factor was the change in the Yearly Meeting leadership during the 1750s, from leaders who owned slaves to leaders who didn’t. The Pennsylvania Assembly Speaker of the House and Clerk of Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting John Kinsey’s death in 1750 and the succeeding scandal when it was discovered that he had mishandled money led to a turnover in leadership. The Quaker contingent he led that had blocked publication of any anti-slavery documents collapsed. The membership of the committee to approve publication now included anti-slavery advocates, including John Woolman himself.
This was generational turnover and scandal may have also been helped by changing economic conditions. Soderman’s evidence indicates that slave ownership appears to have been at least partly influenced to the economic conditions where they lived – such as size of the farms and availability of an alternative labor force, indentured servants. For example, those persistent anti-slavery Quakers from Chester owned fewer slaves because there was an ample supply of indentured servants in their area and their farms were smaller, indicating a lesser need for workers. Thus, for some, slave ownership made less economic sense.
John Woolman (October 19, 1720 (O.S.)/October 30, 1720 (N.S.)[1]– October 7, 1772) was an American merchant, tailor, journalist, Quakerpreacher, and early abolitionist during the colonial era. Based in Mount Holly, New Jersey, near Philadelphia, he traveled through the American frontier to preach Quaker beliefs, and advocate against slavery and the slave trade, cruelty to animals, economic injustices and oppression, and conscription. In 1772, Woolman traveled to England, where he urged Quakers to support abolition of slavery.
At the age of 26, he was working as a clerk and refused to write the part of another customer's will which would have bequeathed or transferred the ownership of a slave, and instead convinced the owner to set the enslaved person free by manumission. He continued to refuse to draw up wills that bequeathed ownership of slaves to heirs. Over time, and working on a personal level, he individually convinced many Quaker slaveholders to free their slaves. As Woolman traveled, when he accepted hospitality from a slaveholder, he insisted on paying the slaves for their work in attending him. He refused to be served with silver cups, plates, and utensils, as he believed that slaves in other regions were forced to dig such precious minerals and gems for the rich.
John Woolman and his committee visited slave owners in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting to convince them to free their slaves. It was a difficult decision for many, especially if their wealth and livelihood were involved, even if they were well-intentioned. Woolman published another pamphlet against slavery, this time paying for it himself. The antislavery momentum in Philadelphia was continued as the Yearly Meeting strengthened their discipline in 1774.
With fellow anti-slavery activist Anthony Benezet, John Woolman next turned to New England, traveling to Rhode Island, center of the triangular slave trade. Appearing at the New England Yearly Meeting, Woolman was influential in moving them towards banning slavery. In 1760 they adopted an advice recommending that Friends “endevour (sic) to keep their hands clear of this unrighteous gain of oppression.” In 1773, they agreed that no friend “import, or in any ways purchase, dispose of or hold mankind slaves”
New York decided against importation of slaves in 1759, a year ahead of New England. In 1768, they asserted that all “rational creatures are by nature born free” and appointed a committee in 1771 to work with slave owners, finally threatening slave owners with disownment in 1776.
In North Carolina, the meeting at New Garden took on particular importance in the adoption of an antislavery stance. There in 1752, Thomas Beals “preached the crusade against slavery.” A couple of requests for membership of slave owners who had moved into the area in 1767 may have been the prompt that led New Garden to request that their Quarter require Friends to not buy or sell slaves. When the issue was brought to the Yearly Meeting in 1770 it was passed, but in a watered down version. The anti-slavery advocates didn’t rest, bringing it up again and again, and by 1778 North Carolina Yearly Meeting had issued an order against all buying and selling of slaves. But as in Virginia, the government of North Carolina regulated the manumission of slaves, and in 1791 passed a law requiring a bond to be posted for each one freed. Even when Quakers freed their slaves, they were still responsible for them in the law. Further, freed slaves could be recaptured and brought back into slavery.
North Carolina Yearly Meeting went the judicial route to deal with how to free their own slaves. A non-Quaker, but friendly judge William Gaston was consulted. He advised having the Yearly Meeting take technical ownership of the freed slaves, becoming known as Quaker Free Negros. By 1814, the majority of North Carolina slaves formerly owned by Quakers had been assigned to the Meeting.
The Grimke sisters,Sarah Moore Grimké (1792–1873) and Angelina Emily Grimké[1] (1805–1879), were American writers, educators, and public speakers, best known for their advocacy of abolitionism and women's rights. The sisters grew up in a slave-owning family in South Carolina and became part of Philadelphia's substantial Quaker society in their twenties.
Lucretia Mott: Hicksite Quaker who was convinced against slavery on a visit to Viriginia. Friends with William Lloyd Garrison (prominent abolitionist) and Frederick Douglass. Traveled in the ministry, speaking against slavery. With her husband, cofounded Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society and the Free Produce Association (sold no slave goods, such as sugar or cotton). During the 1838 convention inof the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia, a mob destroyed Pennsylvania Hall, a newly opened meeting place built by abolitionists. Mott and the white and black women delegates linked arms to exit the building safely through the crowd. Named a PA delegate to 1840 Anti-Slavery Convention in London, but was seated in the auxiliary section, where she became friends with Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Levi Coffin Jr. (October 28, 1798 – September 16, 1877) was an American Quaker, Republican, abolitionist, farmer, businessman and humanitarian. An active leader of the Underground Railroad in Indiana and Ohio, some unofficially called Coffin the "President of the Underground Railroad", estimating that three thousand fugitive slaves passed through his care. Born in North Carolina, his memoir recounts the family’s escape to what later became Indianain order to be able to emancipate those black people who they had formerly enslaved.