eir own, or independently
of those belonging to the other two classes, when they formed their
association in Pennsylvania, will be obvious from these circumstances;
first, that most of those of the first class, who contributed to throw
the greatest light and odium upon the Slave Trade, had not then made
their public appearance in the world. And, with respect to the second
class, the little committee belonging to it had neither been formed nor
thought of.

And as the individuals in each of the three classes, who have now been
mentioned, had an education as it were to qualify them for acting
together in this great cause, and had moved independently of each other;
so it will appear that, by means of circumstances, which they themselves
had neither foreseen nor contrived, a junction between them was rendered
easily practicable, and that it was beginning to take place at the
period assigned.

To show this, I must first remind the reader, that Anthony Benezet, as
soon as he heard of the result of the case of Somerset, opened a
correspondence with Granville Sharp, which was kept up to the
encouragement of both. In the year 1774, when he learned that William
Dillwyn was going to England, he gave him letters to that gentleman.
Thus one of the most conspicuous of the second class was introduced,
accidentally as it were, to one of the most conspicuous of the first. In
the year 1775, William Dillwyn went back to America, but, on his return
to England to settle, he renewed his visits to Granville Sharp. Thus the
connexion was continued. To these observations I may now add, that
Samuel Hoare, of the same class as William Dillwyn, had, in consequence
of the Bishop of Chester's sermon, begun a correspondence in 1784, as
before mentioned, with Mr. Ramsay, who was of the same class as Mr.
Sharp. Thus four individuals of the two first classes were in the way of
an union with one another.

But circumstances equally natural contributed to render an union between
the members of the second and the third classes easily practicable also.
For what was more natural than that William Dillwyn, who was born and
who had resided long in America, should have connexions there? He had
long cultivated a friendship (not then knowing to what it would lead)
with James Pemberton. His intimacy with him was like that of a family
connexion. They corresponded together; they corresponded also as kindred
hearts, relative to the Slave Trade. Thus two members of t