of feeling towards
them among those of their own persuasion.

[Footnote A: It must not be forgotten, that the example of the Moravians
had its influence also in directing men to their duty towards these
oppressed people; for though, when they visited this part of the world
for their conversion, they never meddled with the political state of
things, by recommending it to masters to alter the condition of their
slaves, as believing religion could give comfort in the most abject
situations in life, yet they uniformly freed those slaves who came into
their own possession.]

In consequence then of these and other causes, a considerable number of
persons of various religious denominations, had appeared at different
times in America, besides the Quakers, who, though they had not
distinguished themselves by resolutions and manumissions as religious
bodies, were yet highly friendly to the African cause. This friendly
disposition began to manifest itself about the year 1770; for when a few
Quakers, as individuals, began at that time to form little associations
in the middle provinces of North America, to discourage the introduction
of slaves among people in their own neighbourhoods, who were not of
their own Society, and to encourage the manumission of those already in
bondage, they, were joined as colleagues by several persons of this
description[A], who co-operated with them in the promotion of their
design.

[Footnote A: It then appeared that individuals among those of the Church
of England, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, and others had
begun in a few instances to liberate their slaves.]

This disposition, however, became more manifest in the year 1772; for
the house of burgesses of Virginia presented a petition to the king,
beseeching his majesty to remove all those restraints on his governors
of that colony, which inhibited their assent to such laws as might check
that inhuman and impolitic commerce, the Slave Trade: and it is
remarkable, that the refusal of the British government to permit the
Virginians to exclude slaves from among them by law, was enumerated
afterwards among the public reasons for separating from the mother
country.

But this friendly disposition was greatly increased in the year 1773, by
the literary labours of Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia[B], who, I
believe, is a member of the Presbyterian Church: for in this year, at
the instigation of Anthony Benezet, he took up the cause of