the
oppressed Africans in a little work, which he entitled, _An Address to
the Inhabitants of the British Settlements, on the Slavery of the
Negroes_; and soon afterwards in another, which was a vindication of the
first, in answer to an acrimonious attach by a West Indian planter.
These publications contained many new observations; they were written in
a polished style; and while they exhibited the erudition and talents,
they showed the liberality and benevolence of the author. Having had a
considerable circulation, they spread conviction among many, and
promoted the cause for which they had been so laudably undertaken. Of
the great increase of friendly disposition towards the African cause in
this very year, we have this remarkable proof: that when the Quakers,
living in East and West Jersey, wished to petition the legislature to
obtain an act of assembly for the more equitable manumission of slaves
in that province, so many others of different persuasions joined them,
that the petition was signed by upwards of three thousand persons.

[Footnote B: Dr. Rush has been better known since for his other literary
works, such as his _Medical Dissertations_, his _Treatises on the
Discipline of Schools_, _Criminal Law_, &c.]

But in the next year, or in the year 1774[A], the increased good-will
towards the Africans became so apparent, but more particularly in
Pennsylvania, where the Quakers were more numerous than in any other
state, that they, who considered themselves more immediately as the
friends of these injured people, thought it right to avail themselves of
it: and accordingly James Pemberton, one of the most conspicuous of the
Quakers in Pennsylvania, and Dr. Rush, one of the most conspicuous of
those belonging to the various other religious communities in that
province, undertook, in conjunction with others, the important task of
bringing those into a society who were friendly to this cause. In this
undertaking they succeeded. And hence arose that union of the Quakers
with others, to which I have been directing the attention of the reader,
and by which the third class of forerunners and coadjutors becomes now
complete. This society, which was confined to Pennsylvania, was the
first ever formed in America, in which there was an union of persons of
different religious denominations in behalf of the African race.

[Footnote A: In this year, Elhanan Winchester, a supporter of the
doctrine of universal redemption, turned