"October 29, 1768.
"I desire to embrace as my brethern all who love the Lord Jesus in
sincerity. I cannot but think that all true Christians agree in
fundamentals. Your tracts concerning slavery are very just, and it is
a matter I have often thought of, even before I became acquainted with
the truth: your arguments are forcible against purchasing slaves, or
being any way concerned in that trade."
* * * * *
"PHILADELPHIA, SEVENTH MONTH, 16th, 1781.
"_My Friend Abbé Raynal_,
"From the idea which I conceived of the justice, and generosity of thy
sentiments, I took the liberty of writing to thee about seven or eight
months past under cover of my friend Benjamin Franklin, and likewise
by J---- B----, who we are afraid was lost on his passage. Having
received no answer by several vessels, nor knowing whether my letters
reached thee, or whether thine miscarried, and a good opportunity
offering by my friend Dr. Griffitts, I now seize it to send thee two
copies of a small extract of origin and principles of my brethern the
Quakers, whom I observe in such of thy writings as have come to our
hands, thou didst not think unworthy of thy attention. I have nothing
to add to what I have already wrote thee, but I shall repeat my wish
of saluting thee affectionately on the principles of reason and
humanity, which constitutes that grand circle of love and charity,
unconfined by our parentage or country, but which affectionately
embraces the whole creation, earnestly desiring to the utmost of my
abilities to promote the happiness of all men, even of my enemies
themselves, could I have any. I beseech God to give thee strength that
thou mayest continue to hold up to mankind, thy brethren, principles
tending to replenish their hearts with goodness, friendship and
charity towards each other, that thus thou mayest, to the utmost of
thy power, render men reasonable, useful, and consequently happy; and
more especially that thou mayest combat that false principle of
honour, or rather of intolerable pride and folly, which so strongly
prevails in our nation, where the most indolent, and the least
useful, fancy themselves, and are reputed the most noble. Let us
endeavour to make them sensible that men are noble, but in exact
proportion with their being rational. The happiness which is to be
found in virtue alone, is sought for by men through the titles
acquired by their fathers for their activity in those wars which have
desolated the world, or in the wealth accumulated by their ancestors;
both means generally unjust and oppressive, and consequently rather
sources of shame and humiliation. For as the Chinese philosopher well
observes, 'there is scarcely one rich man out of an hundred, who was
not himself an oppressor, or the son of an oppressor.'
"Let us display to princes and rulers of nations, the example of Numa
Pompilius, who, by a conduct opposite to that of Romulus, his
predecessor, and most of his successors, rendered the Romans, during
his long reign, so respectable and happy. Above all, my dear friend,
let us represent to our compatriots the abominable iniquity of the
Guinea trade. Let us put to the blush the pretended disciples of the
benign Saviour of the World, for the encouragement given to the
unhappy Africans in invading the liberty of their own brethren. Let us
rise, and rise with energy against the corruption introduced into the
principles and manners of the masters and owners of slaves, by a
conduct so contrary to humanity, reason, and religion. Let us be still
more vehement in representing its baneful influence on the principles
and manners of their wretched offspring, necessarily educated in
idleness, pride, and all the vices to which human nature is liable.
"How desirable is it that Lewis the Sixteenth, whose virtues, and good
disposition have been so nobly praised, would set an example to the
other potentates of Europe, by forbidding his subjects to be concerned
in a traffic so evil in itself, and so corrupting in its consequences;
and that he would also issue out ordinances in favour of the negroes,
who are now slaves in his dominions. Alas! should christianity, that
law of love and charity, work its proper effect on the hearts of its
pretended disciples, we should see numbers of christians traverse
Africa, and both the Indies, not to pollute themselves with slavery
and slaughter, nor to accumulate wealth, the supreme wish of the
present nominal christians, but that divine love would impel them to
visit remote regions in order to make the inhabitants acquainted with
the corruption of the human heart, and invite them to seek for the
influence of that grace proposed by the gospel, by which they may
obtain salvation. I am under the necessity of concluding hastily,
requesting thou wouldst excuse faults, which time does not allow me to
correct, and to write to me by various opportunities, the vessels
bound to those parts often missing their destination.
"I am affectionately thy friend,
"ANTHONY BENEZET."
To this energetic and impassioned epistle, the abbé made the following
answer.
"BRUXELLES, DECEMBER 26, 1781.
"All your letters have miscarried; happily I received that of the
sixteenth of July, 1781, with the pamphlets filled with light and
sensibility, which accompany it. Never was any present more agreeable
to me. My satisfaction was equal to the respect I have always had for
the society of Quakers. May it please Heaven to cause all nations to
adopt their principles; men would then be happy, and the globe not
stained with blood. Let us join in our supplications to the supreme
Being, that he may unite us in the bonds of a tender and unalterable
charity.
"I am, &c.
"RAYNAL."
* * * * *
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 succour
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 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 on
behalf of this greatly oppressed 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 may 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. To the tracts
on the subject to which I have thus ventured to crave thy particular
attention, I have added some others, which at different times, I have
believed it my duty to publish, and which I trust will afford thee
some satisfaction; their design being for the furtherance of that
universal peace, and good will amongst men, which the gospel was
intended to introduce. I hope thou will kindly excuse the freedom used
on this occasion, by an ancient man, whose mind for more than forty
years past, has been much separated from the common course of the
world, and long painfully exercised in the consideration of the
miseries under which so large a part of mankind equally with us the
objects of redeeming love, are suffering the most unjust and grievous
oppression, and who sincerely desires the temporal, and eternal
felicity of the queen and her royal consort.
"ANTHONY BENEZET.
"PHILADELPHIA, EIGHTH MONTH, 25th, 1783."