condemns slavery; and divines such as Bishops
Hayter and Warburton took the same view in sermons before the Society
for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. Johnson, 'last of the
Tories' though he was, had a righteous hatred for the system.[120] He
toasted the next insurrection of negroes in the West Indies, and asked
why we always heard the 'loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of
negroes'? Thomas Day (1748-1789), as an ardent follower of Rousseau,
wrote the _Dying Negro_ in 1773, and, in the same spirit, denounced the
inconsistencies of slave-holding champions of American liberty.

Such isolated utterances showed a spreading sentiment. The honour of the
first victory in the practical application must be given to Granville
Sharp[121] (1735-1813), one of the most charming and, in the best sense,
'Quixotic' of men. In 1772 his exertions had led to the famous decision
by Lord Mansfield in the case of the negro Somerset.[122] Sharp in 1787
became chairman of the committee formed to attack the slave-trade by
collecting the evidence of which Wilberforce made use in parliament. The
committee was chiefly composed of Quakers; as indeed, Quakers are pretty
sure to be found in every philanthropic movement of the period. I must
leave the explanation to the historian of religious movements; but the
fact is characteristic. The Quakers had taken the lead in America. The
Quaker was both practical and a mystic. His principles put him outside
of the ordinary political interests, and of the military world. He
directed his activities to helping the poor, the prisoner, and the
oppressed. Among the Quakers of the eighteenth century were John Woolman
(1720-1772), a writer beloved by the congenial Charles Lamb and Antoine
Benezet (1713-1784), born in France, and son of a French refugee who
settled in Philadelphia. When Clarkson wrote the prize essay upon the
slave-trade (1785), which started his career, it was from Benezet's
writings that he obtained his information. By their influence the
Pennsylvanian Quakers were gradually led to pronounce against
slavery[123]; and the first anti-slavery society was founded in
Philadelphia in 1775, the year in which the skirmish at Lexington began
the war of independence. That suggests another influence. The
Rationalists of the eighteenth century were never tired of praising the
Quakers. The Quakers were, by their essential principles, in favour of
absolute toleration, and their attitude towards