Abbe 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 negr