Early abolitionists at work
From the earliest days of the American colonies and the founding of the republic, there were those who stood against slavery. One such abolitionist was the Quaker subsistence farmer, Benjamin Lay. Striding into a Quaker meeting house one autumn afternoon in 1738, Mr. Lay denounced the evils of slavery to all those gathered, before taking a sword and piercing a book – within which he had hidden a pouch of blood-red pokeberry juice. “Thus shall God shed the blood of those persons who enslave their fellow creatures,” he proclaimed.
Antislavery activists like Mr. Lay had different methods of conveying their message. Some wrote leaflets or pamphlets to hand out on street corners. Others published articles in the press. Many gave speeches and debated the topic in public forums. To focus their efforts and amplify their reach, abolitionists banded together to form societies. The first abolitionist organization, the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, was established in Philadelphia in 1775.
Philadelphia was also where the founding fathers gathered to frame the Declaration of Independence and, later, the U.S. Constitution. They were not immune to the slavery debate. Prominent members of the assembly, like John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton, argued that slavery stood in contradistinction to the ideals of equality and liberty professed in the founding documents.
Image: An unfinished engraving c. 1800 by Edward Savage, "The Presentation of the Declaration of Independence to the Continental Congress," based on a painting by Robert Edge Pine, depicts Thomas Jefferson placing the hallowed document before John Hancock in the crowded Assembly Room of the Pennsylvania State House (now called Independence Hall), Philadelphia. Courtesy: American Antiquarian Society, Library of Congress.