During the eighteenth century the Quakers gradually changed from the
introspective state of seeking their own welfare into the altruistic
mood of helping those who shared with them the heritage of being
despised and rejected of men. After securing toleration for their sect
in the inhospitable New World they began to think seriously of others
whose lot was unfortunate. The Negroes, therefore, could not escape
their attention. Almost every Quaker center declared its attitude
toward the bondmen, varying it according to time and place. From the
first decade of the eighteenth century to the close of the American
Revolution the Quakers passed through three stages in the development
of their policy concerning the enslavement of the blacks. At first
they directed their attention to preventing their own adherents from
participating in it, then sought to abolish the slave trade and
finally endeavored to improve the condition of all slaves as a
preparation for emancipation.
Among those who largely determined the policy of the Quakers during
that century were William Burling[22] of Long Island, Ralph Sandiford
of Pennsylvania, Benjamin Lay of Abington, John Woolman of New Jersey
and Anthony Benezet of Philadelphia. Early conceiving an abhorrence to
slavery, Burling denounced it by writing anti-slavery tracts and
portraying its unlawfulness at the yearly meetings of the Quakers.
Ralph Sandiford followed the same methods and in his "_Mystery of
Iniquity_" published in 1729, forcefully exposed the iniquitous
practice in a stirring appeal in behalf of the Africans.[23] Benjamin
Lay, not contented with the mere writing of tracts, availed himself of
the opportunity afforded by frequent contact with those in power to
interview administrative officials of the slave colonies, undauntedly
demanding that they bestir themselves to abolish the evil system.[24]
Struck by the wickedness of the institution while traveling through
the South prior to the Revolution, John Woolman spent his remaining
years as an itinerant preacher, urging the members of his society
everywhere to eradicate the evil.[25] Anthony Benezet, going a step
further, rendered greater service than any of these as an anti-slavery
publicist and at the same time persistently toiled as a worker among
the Negroes.
Benezet was born in St. Quentin in Picardy in France in 1713. He was a
descendant of a family of Huguenots who after all but establishing
their faith in France saw themselves denounced and persecuted as
heretics and finally driven from the country by the edict of Nantes.
One of the reformer's family, François Benezet, perished on the
scaffold at Montpelier in 1755, fearlessly proclaiming to the
multitude of spectators the doctrines for which he had been condemned
to die.[26] Unwilling to withstand the imminent persecution, however,
John Stephen Benezet, Anthony's father, fled from France to Holland
but after a brief stay in that country moved to London in 1715.
After being liberally educated by his father, Benezet served an
apprenticeship in one of the leading establishments of London to
prepare himself for a career in the commercial world. He had some
difficulty, however, in coming to the conclusion that he would be very
useful in this field. He, therefore, soon abandoned this idea and
followed mechanical pursuits until he moved with his family to
Philadelphia in 1731. There his brothers easily established themselves
in a successful business and endeavored to induce Anthony to join
them, but the youth was still of the impression that this was not his
calling. His life's work was finally determined by his early
connection with the Quakers, to the religious views and testimonies of
whom he rigidly adhered. He continued his mechanical pursuit and later
undertook manufacturing at Washington, Delaware, but feeling that
neither of these satisfied his desire to be thoroughly useful he
decided to return to Philadelphia to devote his life to religion and
humanity.[27]
Benezet finally became a teacher. In this field he, for more than
forty years, served in a disinterested and Christian spirit all who
diligently sought enlightenment. He aimed to train up the youth in
knowledge and virtue, manifesting in this position such "a rightness
of conduct, such a courtesy of manners, such a purity of intention,
and such a spirit of benevolence" that he attracted attention and
ingratiated himself into the favor of all of those who knew him. He
first served in this capacity in Germantown, working a part of his
time as a proof reader. In 1742 he was chosen to fill a vacancy in the
English department of the public school founded by charter from
William Penn. After serving there satisfactorily twelve years he
founded a female seminary of his own, instructing the daughters of the
most aristocratic families of Philadelphia.[28]
Benezet was a really modern teacher, far in advance of his
contemporaries. Much better educated than most teachers of his time,
he could write his own textbooks. He had an affectionate and fatherly
manner and always showed a conscientious interest in the welfare of
his pupils. "He carefully studied their dispositions," says his
biographer, "and sought to develop by gentle assiduity the peculiar
talents of each individual pupil. With some persuasion was his only
incitement, others he stimulated to a laudable emulation; and even
with the most obdurate he seldom, if ever, appealed to any other
corrective than that of the sense of shame and the fear of public
disgrace." In his teaching, too, he endeavored to make "a worldly
concern subservient to the noblest duties and the most intensive
goodness."[29] In serious discussions like that of slavery he
undertook to instill into the minds of his students firm convictions
of the right, believing that in so doing he would greatly influence
public sentiment when these properly directed youths should take their
places in life.
This whole-souled energetic man, however, could not confine himself
altogether to teaching. While following this profession he devoted so
much of his time to philanthropic enterprises and reforms that he was
mainly famous for his achievements in these fields. "He considered the
whole world his country," says one, "and all mankind his
brethren."[30] Benezet was for several reasons interested in the man
far down. In the first place, being a Huguenot, he himself knew what
it is to be persecuted. He was, moreover, during these years a
faithful coworker of the Friends who were then fearlessly advocating
the cause of the downtrodden. He deeply sympathized, therefore, with
the Indians. His work, too, was not limited merely to that of
relieving individual cases of suffering but comprised also the task of
promoting the agitation for respecting the rights of that people.
Unlike most Americans, he had faith in the Indians, believing that if
treated justly they would give the whites no cause to fear them. When
in 1763 General Amherst was at New York preparing to attack the
Indians, Benezet addressed him an earnest appeal in these words: "And
further may I entreat the general, for our blessed Redeemer's sake,
from the nobility and humanity of his heart, that he would condescend
to use all moderate measures if possible to prevent that prodigious
and cruel effusion of blood, that deep anxiety of distress, that must
fill the breast of so many helpless people should an Indian war be
once entered upon?"[31] Not long before his death Benezet expressed
himself further on this wise in a work entitled "_Some Observations on
the Situation, Disposition, and Character of the Indian Natives of the
Continent_."
Further evidence of Benezet's philanthropy was exhibited in his
attitude toward certain Acadians who for political reasons were driven
from their homes to Philadelphia in 1755. Devoid of the comforts of
life in a foreign community, they were in a situation miserable to be
told. Being of the same stock and speaking their language, Benezet
took upon himself the task of serving as mediator between this
deported group and the community. A man of high character and much
influence, he easily obtained a relief fund with which he provided
asylum for the decrepit, sustenance for the needy, and employment for
those able to labor. He attended the sick, comforted the dying, and
delivered over their remains the last tribute due the dead.[32]
His sympathetic nature too impelled him to speak in behalf of the
suffering soldiers of the American Revolution. Adhering to the faith
of the Quakers, he could not but shudder at the horrors of that war.
He was interested not only in the soldiers but also in the unfortunate
Americans on whom they were imposed. He saw in the whole course of war
nothing but bold iniquity and crass inconsistency of nations which
professed to be Christian. To set forth the distress which such a
state of the country caused him Benezet wrote a dissertation entitled
"_Thoughts on the Nature of War_," and distributed it among persons of
distinction in America and Europe. In 1778 when the struggle for
independence had reached a crisis he issued in the interest of peace
with the enemy a work entitled "_Serious Reflections on the Times
addressed to the Well-disposed of every Religious Denomination_."[33]
Moved by every variety of suffering whenever and wherever found,
Benezet's attention had during these years been attracted to a class
of men much farther down than the lowliest of the lowly of other
races. He had not been in this country long before he was moved to put
forth some effort to alleviate the sufferings of those bondmen whose
faces were black. In the year 1750, when the Quakers, although
denouncing the evil of slavery here and there, were not presenting a
solid front to the enemy, Anthony Benezet boldly attacked the slave
trade, attracting so much attention that he soon solidified the
anti-slavery sentiment of the Quakers against the institution.[34] For
more than thirty years thereafter he was a tireless worker in this
cause, availing himself of every opportunity to impress men with the
thought as to the wickedness of the traffic. In his class room he held
up to his pupils the horrors of the system, always mentioned it in his
public utterances, and seldom failed to speak of it when conversing
with friends or strangers. Benezet set forth in the almanacs of the
time accounts of the atrocities of those engaged in slavery and the
slave trade and published and circulated numerous pamphlets
ingeniously exposing their iniquities.[35]
Devoted as Benezet was to the cause of the blacks, he was not an
ardent abolitionist like Garrison, who fifty years later fearlessly
advocated the immediate destruction of the system. Benezet was
primarily interested in the suppression of the slave trade. He hoped
also to see the slaves gradually emancipated after having had
adequate preparation to live as freedmen. Writing to Fothergill,
Benezet expressed his concurrence with the former's opinion that it
would be decidedly dangerous both to the Negroes and the masters
themselves in the southern colonies, should the slaves be suddenly
manumitted. Except in particular cases, therefore, even in the
northern colonies the liberation of slaves in large numbers was not at
first Benezet's concern. He believed that "the best endeavors in our
power to draw the notice of the governments, upon the grievous
iniquity and great danger attendant on a further prosecution of the
slave trade, is what every truly sympathizing mind cannot but
earnestly desire, and under divine direction promote to the utmost of
their power." If this could be obtained, he believed the sufferings of
"those already amongst us, by the interposition of the government, and
even from selfish ends in their masters, would be mitigated, and in
time Providence would gradually work for the release of those, whose
age and situation would fit them for freedom." Benezet thought that
this second problem could be solved by colonizing the Negroes on the
western lands. "The settlements now in prospect to be made in that
large extent of country," said he, "from the west side of the Allegany
mountains to the Mississippi, on a breadth of four or five hundred
miles, would afford a suitable and beneficial means of settlement for
many of them among the white people, which would in all probability be
as profitable to the negroes as to the new settlers." But he did not
desire to take up time especially with matters of so remote a nature,
it being indeed with reluctance that he took up at all a question
which he would have avoided, "if there had been any person to whom he
could have addressed himself with the same expectation, that what he
had in view would have thereby been answered."[36]
Taking a more advanced position with this propaganda Benezet published
in 1762 a work entitled "_A Short Account of that Part of Africa
inhabited by Negroes, with general Observations on the Slave Trade and
Slavery_." "The end proposed by this essay," says the author, "is to
lay before the candid reader the depth of evil attending this
iniquitous practice, in the prosecution of which our duty to God, the
common Father of the family of the whole earth, and our duty of love
to our fellow creatures, is totally disregarded; all social connection
and tenderness of nature being broken, desolation and bloodshed
continually fomented in those unhappy people's country." It was also
intended, said he, "to invalidate the false arguments which are
frequently advanced for the palliation of this trade, in hopes it may
be some inducement to those who are not yet defiled therewith to keep
themselves clear; and to lay before such as have unwarily engaged in
it, their danger of totally losing that tender sensibility to the
sufferings of their fellow creatures, the want whereof set men beneath
the brute creation."[37]
In the year 1769 appeared his "_Caution and Warning to Great Britain
and her Colonies on the Calamitous State of the Enslaved Negroes in
the British Dominions_." Referring to this work, he says: "The intent
of publishing the following sheets, is more fully to make known the
aggravated iniquity attending the practice of the Slave Trade; whereby
many thousands of our fellow creatures, as free as ourselves by nature
and equally with us the subjects of Christ's redeeming Grace, are
yearly brought into inextricable and barbarous bondage; and many; very
many, to miserable and untimely ends." Fearlessly directing this as an
attack on public functionaries he remarks: "How an evil of so deep a
dye, hath so long, not only passed uninterrupted by those in power,
but hath even had their countenance, is indeed surprising; and charity
would suppose, must in a great measure have arisen from this, that
many persons in government both of the Laity and Clergy, in whose
power it hath been to put a stop to the Trade, have been unacquainted
with the corrupt motives which gives life to it, and with the groans,
the dying groans, which daily ascend to God, the common Father of
mankind, from the broken hearts of those his deeply oppressed
creatures." Coming directly to the purpose in mind, however, the
author declares: "I shall only endeavor to show from the nature of the
Trade, the plenty which Guinea affords to its inhabitants, the
barbarous treatment of the Negroes and the observations made thereon
by authors of note, that it is inconsistent with the plainest precepts
of the Gospel, the dictates of reason, and every common sentiment of
humanity."[38]
This work turned out to be the first really effective one of Benezet's
writings, creating not a little sensation both on this continent and
Europe. It was especially rousing to the Quakers here and abroad. The
Yearly Meeting of London recommended in 1785 that all the quarterly
meetings give this book the widest circulation possible. The Quakers
in various parts accordingly approached numerous classes of persons,
all sects and denominations, and especially public officials. Desiring
also to reach the youth the agents for distribution visited the
schools of Westminster, the Carter-House, St. Paul's, Merchant
Tailors', Eton, Winchester, and Harrow. From among the youths thus
informed came some of those reformers who finally abolished the slave
trade in the English dominions.
The most effective of Benezet's works, however, was his "_An
Historical Account of Guinea, its Situation, Produce, and the General
Disposition of its Inhabitants, with an Enquiry into the Rise and
Progress of the Slave Trade, its Nature and Calamitous Effect_." This
volume approached more nearly than his other writings what students of
to-day would call a scientific treatise. The author devoted much time
to the collection of facts and substantiated his assertions by
quotations from the standard authorities in that field. While it added
nothing really new to the argument already advanced, the usual
theories were more systematically arranged and more forcefully set
forth.[39] "This book," says a writer, "became instrumental beyond any
other work ever before published in disseminating a proper knowledge
and detestation of this Trade."[40]
The most important single effect the book had, was to convert Thomas
Clarkson, who thereafter devoted his life to the cause of abolishing
the slave trade. While a Senior Bachelor of Arts at the University of
Cambridge, Clarkson had in 1784 distinguished himself by winning a
prize for the best Latin dissertation. The following year a prize was
offered for the best essay on the subject "anne Liceat invitos in
servitutem dare," is it lawful to make slaves of others against their
will? Knowing that he was then unprepared to compete, he hesitated to
enter the contest, not wishing to lose the reputation he had so
recently won. Yet owing to the fact that it was expected of him, he
entered his name, actuated by no other motive than to distinguish
himself as a scholar. As there was then a paucity of literature on
slavery in England, his first researches in this field were not
productive of gratifying results. "I was in this difficulty," says
Clarkson, "when going by accident into a friend's house, I took up a
newspaper there lying on the table. One of the first articles which
attracted my notice was an advertisement of Anthony Benezet's
'_Historical Account of Guinea_.' I soon left my friend and his paper,
and, to lose no time, hastened to London to buy it. In this precious
book I found almost all I wanted." Clarkson easily won the first
prize. Although Benezet himself did not live to see it, this volume
converted to the cause of the oppressed race a man who as an author
and reformer became one of the greatest champions it ever had.[41]
Benezet continued to write on the slave trade, collecting all
accessible data from year to year and publishing it whenever he could.
He obtained many of his facts about the sufferings of slaves from the
Negroes themselves, moving among them in their homes, at the places
where they worked, or on the wharves where they stopped when
traveling. To diffuse this knowledge where it would be most
productive of the desired results, he talked with tourists and
corresponded with every influential person whom he could reach.
Travelers who came into contact with him were given thoughts to
reflect on, messages to convey or tracts to distribute among others
who might further the cause. Hearing that Granville Sharp had in 1772
obtained the significant verdict in the famous Somerset case, Benezet
wrote him, that this champion of freedom abroad might be enabled to
cooperate more successfully with those commonly concerned on this side
of the Atlantic.[42] With the same end in view he corresponded with
George Whitefield and John Wesley.[43]
His connection with the work of George Whitefield was further extended
by correspondence with the Countess of Huntingdon who had at the
importunity of Whitefield established at Savannah a college known as
the Orphan House, to promote the enlightenment of the poor and to
prepare some of them for the clerical profession. Unlike Whitefield,
the founder, who thought that the Negroes also might derive some
benefit from this institution, the successors of the good man
endeavored to maintain the institution by the labor of slaves
purchased to cultivate the plantations owned by the institution.
Benezet, therefore, wrote the Countess a brilliant letter pathetically
depicting the misery she was unconsciously causing by thus encouraging
slavery and the slave trade. He was gratified to learn from the
distinguished lady that in founding the institution she had no such
purpose in mind and that she would prohibit the wicked crime.[44]
Learning that Abbé Raynal had exhibited in his celebrated work a
feeling of sympathy for the African, Benezet sought in the same way to
attach him more closely to the cause of prohibiting the slave trade.
Observing that the slave trade which had because of the American
Revolution declined only to rise again after that struggle had
ceased, Benezet addressed a stirring letter to the Queen of England,
who on hearing from Benjamin West of the high character of the writer,
received it with marks of peculiar condescension.
Let no casual reader of this story conclude that Benezet was a mere
theorist or pamphleteer. He ever translated into action what he
professed to believe. Knowing that the enlightenment of the blacks
would not only benefit them directly but would also disprove the mad
theories as to the impossibility of their mental improvement, Benezet
became one of the most aggressive and successful workers who ever
toiled among these unfortunates. As early as 1750 he established for
the Negroes in Philadelphia an evening school in which they were
offered instruction gratuitously. His noble example appealing to the
Society of Friends, he encouraged them to raise a fund adequate to
establishing a larger and well-organized school.[46] This additional
effort, to be sure, required much of his time. When he discovered,
however, that he could not direct the colored school and at the same
time continue his female academy which he had conducted for three
generations, he abandoned his own interests and devoted himself
exclusively to the uplift of the colored people. In this establishment
he received all the rewards he anticipated. It was sufficient for him
finally to be able to say: "I can with truth and sincerity declare
that I have found amongst the Negroes as great variety of talents, as
among a like number of whites, and I am bold to assert, that the
notion entertained by some, that the blacks are inferior in their
capacities, is a vulgar prejudice, founded on the pride or ignorance
of their lordly masters, who have kept their slaves at such a distance
as to be unable to form a right judgment of them."[47]
His devotion to this work was further demonstrated by another noble
deed. His will provided that after the payment of certain legacies and
smaller obligations his estate should at the death of his widow be
turned over to the trustees of the public school "to hire and employ
a religious-minded person or persons to teach a number of negroe,
mulatto, or Indian children, to read, write, arithmetic, plain
accounts, needle work." "And," continued he, "it is my particular
desire, founded on the experience I have had in that service, that in
the choice of such tutor, special care may be had to prefer an
industrious, careful person, of true piety, who may be or become
suitably qualified, who would undertake the service from a principle
of charity, to one more highly learned not equally disposed."[48]
But this philanthropist's work was almost done. He was then seventy
years of age and having been an earnest worker throughout his life he
had begun to decline. One spring morning in the year 1784 it was
spread abroad in Philadelphia that Anthony Benezet was seriously ill
and that persons realizing his condition were apprehensive of his
recovery. So disturbed were his friends by this sad news that they for
several days besieged the house to seek, so to speak, the dying
benediction of a venerable father. The same in death as he had been in
life, he received their attentions with due appreciation of what he
had been to them but exhibited at the same time in the presence of his
Maker the deepest self-humiliation. "I am dying," said he, "and feel
ashamed to meet the face of my Maker, I have done so little in his
cause." Anthony Benezet was no more.
The honors which his admirers paid him were indicative of the high
esteem in which they held the distinguished dead. Thousands of the
people of Philadelphia followed his remains to witness the interment
of all that was mortal of Anthony Benezet. Never had that city on such
an occasion seen a demonstration in which so many persons of all
classes participated. There were the officials of the city, men of all
trades and professions, various sects and denominations, and hundreds
of Negroes, "testifying by their attendance, and by their tears, the
grateful sense they entertained of his pious efforts in their
behalf."[49]