A man of far greater power was John Woolman (1720–1772), perhaps the greatest liberator that the Friends ever produced. Woolman gave up his position as accountant rather than write bills for the sale of negroes. He was very religious, and most of his life he spent as a minister travelling from one colony to another trying to persuade men of the wickedness of slavery. In 1754 he published the first part of his book, Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes, of which the second part appeared in 1762. He was stricken with smallpox while on a visit to England, and died there.[219]
The last was Anthony Benezet (1713–1784), a French Huguenot who joined the Society of Friends. He came to Philadelphia as early as 1731, but it was about 1750 that his attention was drawn to the negroes. From that time to the end of his life he was their zealous advocate. By his writings upon Africa, slavery, and the slave-trade, he attracted the attention and enlisted the support of many. He was untiring in his efforts. Frequently he talked with the negroes and strove to improve them; he endeavored to create a favorable impression of them; he was influential in securing the passage of the abolition act; and at his death he bequeathed the bulk of his property to the cause which he had served so well in his life.[220]
That these Quaker reformers, particularly men like Woolman and Benezet, exerted an enormous influence against slavery in Pennsylvania, there can be no doubt.[221] Their influence is attested by numerous contemporary allusions, but it is proved far better by the change in sentiment which was gradually brought about. Southeby, Sandiford, and Lay were before their time and were treated as fanatics. Woolman and Benezet who came afterward were able to reap the harvest which had been sown.
The movement which had been urged with violent rapidity from without was all the while proceeding slowly and quietly within. For many years the Friends considered slavery, and almost every year the Meetings made reports upon the subject. These reports showed that the number of Quakers who bought slaves was constantly decreasing.[222] In 1743 an annual query was instituted.[223] In 1754 the Yearly Meeting circulated a printed letter strongly condemning slavery.[224] The second decisive step followed when it was made a rule that Friends who persisted in buying slaves should be disowned. The measure was effective and this part of the work was soon accomplished.[225] Finally in 1758 the third step was taken when it was unanimously agreed that Friends should be advised to manumit their slaves, and that those who persisted in holding them should not be allowed to participate in the affairs of the Society.[226] John Woolman and others were appointed on committees to visit slaveholders and persuade them.[227]
The work of these visiting committees is as remarkable as any in the history of slavery. Self-sacrificing people who had freed their own slaves now abandoned their interests and set out to persuade others to give negroes the freedom thought to be due them. In southeastern Pennsylvania are old diaries almost untouched for a century and a half which bear witness of characters odd and heroic; which contain the story of men and women sincere, brave, and unfaltering, who united quiet mysticism with the zeal of a crusader. The committees undertook to persuade a whole population to give up its slaves. There is no doubt that the task was a difficult one. Again and again the writers speak of obstacles overcome. They tell of owners who would not be convinced, who acknowledged that slavery was wrong, and promised that they would buy no more slaves, but who affirmed that they would keep such as they had. The diaries speak of repeated visits, of the arguments employed, of slow and gradual yielding, and of final triumph. If ever Christian work was carried on in the spirit of Christ, it was when John Woolman, Isaac Jackson, James Moon, and their fellow missionaries put an end to slavery among the Quakers of Pennsylvania.[228]
The penalties denounced by the Meeting were imposed with firmness. In 1761 the Chester Quarterly Meeting dealt with a member for having bought and sold a slave.[229] Through this and the following years there are many records in the Monthly Meetings of manumissions, voluntary and persuaded; record being made in each case to ensure the negro his freedom.[230] In 1774 the Philadelphia Meeting resolved that Friends who held slaves beyond the age at which white apprentices were discharged, should be treated as disorderly persons.[231] The work of abolition was practically completed in 1776 when the resolution passed that members who persisted in holding slaves were to be disowned.[232] If this is understood in connection with the fact that in the Meetings questions were rarely decided except by almost unanimous vote, it is clear that so far as the Friends were concerned slavery was nearly extinct. This was almost absolutely accomplished by 1780.[233]
The wholesale private abolition of slavery by the Friends of Pennsylvania is one of those occurrences over which the historian may well linger. It was not delayed until slavery had become unprofitable,[234] nor was it forced through any violent hostility. It was a result attained merely by calm, steady persuasion, and a disposition to obey the dictates of conscience unflinchingly. As such it is among the grandest examples of the triumph of principle and ideal righteousness over self-interest.[235] It may well be doubted whether any body of men and women other than the Friends were capable of such conduct at this time.[236]
So far the checking of slavery in Pennsylvania had been the result of two great factors; that the Germans would not hold slaves, and that the Friends gradually gave them up. Another factor now made it possible to bring about the end of the institution altogether. There began the period of the long contest of the Revolution, when Pennsylvania was stirred to its depths by the struggle for independence.
Almost at the beginning of the war, in 1776, the Assembly received from citizens of Philadelphia two petitions that manumission be rendered easier. These petitions accomplished nothing,[237] but the feeling which had been gathering strength for so many years went forward unchecked, and by 1778 there existed a powerful sentiment in favor of legislative abolition. Therefore in February, 1779, the draft of a bill was prepared and recommended by the Council; but for a while no progress was made, since the Assembly, though it approved the principle, believed that such a measure should originate in itself.[238] Toward the end of the year the matter was taken up in earnest, and a bill was soon drafted. Public sentiment was thoroughly aroused now. Petitions for and against the bill came to the Assembly, and letters were published in the newspapers. The friends of the measure were untiring in their efforts. Anthony Benezet is said to have visited every member of the Assembly. On March 1, 1780, the bill was enacted into a law, thirty-four yeas and twenty-one nays.[239]
The “Act for the gradual Abolition of Slavery” provided that thereafter no child born in Pennsylvania should be a slave; but that such children, if negroes or mulattoes born of a slave mother, should be servants until they were twenty-eight years of age; that all present slaves should be registered by their masters before November 1, 1780; and that such as were not then registered should be free.[240] It abolished the old discriminations, for it provided that negroes whether slave or free should be tried and punished in the same manner as white people, except that a slave was not to be admitted to witness against a freeman.[241] The earlier special legislation was repealed.[242]