posterity to serve them
continually and arbitrarily, and without any proper recompense for
their services." See Clarkson's "History of the Abolition of the
African Slave Trade," Volume I, pp. 146-147.

[23] After Burling came Ralph Sandiford, a merchant engaged in
business in Philadelphia. This man attracted the attention of his
friends because he declined the assistance offered him by persons
sufficiently wealthy to establish him in life, merely because they had
acquired their wealth by enslaving Negroes. He not only labored among
his own people for the liberation of the slaves, but boldly appealed
to others. He finally expressed his sentiments in a publication called
the "Mystery of Inquiry," a brief treatise on the evil of the
institution of slavery. The importance attached to this work is that
Sandiford published it and circulated it at his own expense despite
the fact that he had been threatened with prosecution by the judge.
This pamphlet was written in correct and energetic style, abounding
with facts, sentiments and quotations, which showed the virtue and
talents of the author and made a forceful appeal in behalf of the
blacks. See Clarkson's "History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade,"
Volume I, pp. 147-148.

[24] Benjamin Lay, the next worker in this cause, lived at Abington,
not far from Philadelphia. He was a man of desirable class and had
access to the homes of some of the best people even when in England.
He was not long in this country before he championed the cause of the
slave. In 1737 he published his first treatise on slavery,
distributing it far and wide, especially among the members of the
rising generation. He traveled extensively through this country and
the West Indies and personally took up the question of abolition with
the governors of the slave colonies. It is doubtful, according to
Clarkson, that he rendered the cause great service by this mission.
This writer says that "in bearing what he believed to be his testimony
against this system of oppression, he adopted sometimes a singularity
of manner, by which, as conveying demonstration of a certain
eccentricity of character, he diminished in some degree his usefulness
to the cause which he had undertaken; as far indeed as this
eccentricity might have the effect of preventing others from joining
him in his pursuit, lest they should be thought singular also, so far
it must be allowed that he ceased to become beneficial. But there can
be no