Mid-Eighteenth Century British Quakerism and the Response to the Problem of Slavery

MID-EIGHTEENTH CENTURY BRITISH QUAKERISM AND THE RESPONSE TO THE PROBLEM OF SLAVERY By Judith Jennings* On the 4th of June 1757 the London Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends, the chief policy making body of the Quaker organization in Great Britain, abruptly declared its concern that Friends might be involved "for Filthy Lucre Sake in Dealing in Negroes."1 Accordingly, it directed the Meeting for Sufferings, the executive committee which met weekly to conduct the business of the Society, to send copies of past Yearly Meeting Minutes and Advices relating to the slave trade to every local Quaker meeting in Britain and the Colonies and to issue whatever new advice on the subject might seem necessary. On the 15th of July, a subcommittee of seven reported somewhat sheepishly to the Meeting for Sufferings that upon careful examination there appeared to be only one past Yearly Meeting Minute on the slave trade and that had been issued thirty years earlier and merely censured it as a "Practice . . . not commendable nor Allowable" for Friends.2 The Meeting for Sufferings, which had no independent power of its own, thought it best to refer the whole subject back to the next Yearly Meeting for further consideration. In 1758 the London Yearly Meeting declared that it could "do no less than . . . impress it upon Friends everywhere, that they endeavour to keep their hands clear" of the traffic in slaves. The Printed Epistle, issued annually, and routinely distributed to *Judith Jennings teaches history at Union College in Kentucky. The present article is Chapter I of her doctoral dissertation, "The Campaign for the Abolition of the British Slave Trade: The Quaker Contribution, 17571807 ." She writes, "I should like to thank my major professor at the University of Kentucky, Dr. Carl B. Cone for his help in die preparation of my dissertation and Edward H. Milligan, Librarian, and die staff of the Friends House Library in London, for their kindness and patient assistance in my research work diere." 1.London, England, Friends House MSS, Minutes of the Yearly Meeting held in London (hereafter cited as YM Min Bk), Vol. 11, 4 June 1757. 2.London, England, Friends House, MSS, Minute Book of the Meeting for Sufferings (hereafter cited as M for S Min Bk), Vol. 30, 15 July 1757. 23 24QUAKER HISTORY Quakers aU over the world, that year strongly advised Friends against any participation in the trade.3 Local meetings of British and American Friends responded with approbation and encouragement to the Epistle of the London Yearly Meeting. The newly-established Meeting for Sufferings in Philadelphia, the center of Quaker strength in the American Colonies, lost no time in informing London that the same subject had been under consideration in the Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting and agreeing that Friends should not be involved in the slave trade.4 The Yearly Meeting at Edinburgh was quick to assert that no Scottish Quakers were involved in the slave trade but seconded London's concern lest Friends anywhere were tainted by a connection with it.5 Friends in the province of New York confided to London their hope that all Quaker participation in the trade would soon end completely.8 Maryland Friends vowed not to import or purchase slaves.7 American Quakers did not let the matter drop with these initial expressions of approval. Writing to London in May 1760, Virginia Friends voiced their uneasiness about holding slaves but explained that since manumission was illegal in their province, there was little point in freeing slaves only to have them seized and sold back into bondage. The Virginia Yearly Meeting went on to say, however , that Friends there had been forbidden to import or purchase new slaves and that the treatment of slaves already in Friends' possession was being investigated.8 It was the Pennsylvania Quakers who responded most enthusiasticaUy and most persistently to the lead given by London in 1758. In 1760 the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting reported that antislavery sentiment was spreading among Friends in Pennsylvania and in 3.Epistles from the Yearly Meeting of Friends, Held in London, to the Quarterly and Monthly Meetings in Great Britain, Ireland and Elsewhere from 1681-1857 [hereafter cited as YM Printed...