st ever formed in England for the promotion of the abolition of the
Slave Trade. That Quakers have had this honour is unquestionable. Nor is
it extraordinary that they should have taken the lead on this occasion,
when we consider how advantageously they have been situated for so
doing. For the Slave Trade, as we have not long ago seen, came within
the discipline of the society in the year 1727. From thence it continued
to be an object of it till 1783. In 1783 the society petitioned
parliament, and in 1784 it distributed books to enlighten the public
concerning it. Thus we see that every Quaker, born since the year 1727,
was nourished as it were in a fixed hatred against it. He was taught,
that any concern in it was a crime of the deepest dye. He was taught,
that the bearing of his testimony against it was a test of unity with
those of the same religious profession. The discipline of the Quakers
was therefore a school for bringing them up as advocates for the
abolition of this trade. To this it may be added, that the Quakers knew
more about the trade and the slavery of the Africans, than any other
religious body of men, who had not been in the land of their sufferings.
For there had been a correspondence between the society in America and
that in England on the subject, the contents of which must have been
known to the members of each. American ministers also were frequently
crossing the Atlantic on religious missions to England. These, when they
travelled through various parts of our island, frequently related to the
Quaker families in their way the cruelties they had seen and heard of in
their own country. English ministers were also frequently going over to
America on the same religious errand. These, on their return, seldom
failed to communicate what they had learned or observed, but more
particularly relative to the oppressed Africans, in their travels. The
journals also of these, which gave occasional accounts of the sufferings
of the slaves, were frequently published. Thus situated in point of
knowledge, and brought up moreover from their youth in a detestation of
the trade, the Quakers were ready to act whenever a favourable
opportunity should present itself.

CHAPTER V.

Third class of forerunners and coadjutors, up to 1787,
consists of the Quakers and others in America.--Yearly meeting for
Pennsylvania and the Jerseys takes up the subject in 1696; and continue
it till 1787.--Other five yearly meetings ta