Pennsylvania Quakers began Abolition of Slavery in America

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

From my upcoming book, A Promise of American Liberty...
Pennsylvania Abolition Society: Dinah Nevill insisted she was not a slave. Her claim helped spur the abolition movement in the United States in 1775, where ten Quakers founded the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage. At their first meeting in Philadelphia's Rising Sun Tavern, the members agreed to come to the aid of Dinah Nevill, and fight the sale of Nevill and her three children in Bethlehem to a man from Virginia who claimed to be their master. The fledging organization failed, but did manage to arrange for her family's freedom and return to Philadelphia in 1779.

The Revolutionary War interrupted the group’s plans for meetings, but the abolition movement grew, nonetheless. On March 1, 1780, the Pennsylvania Assembly passed a law calling for the gradual end to slavery. The new law was the first legislative act against slavery in the United States (modeled after Vermont’s law of 1777, which Vermont established before becoming a State), and while it did not free those who were enslaved at the time, it was the first step towards Pennsylvania becoming a non-slave State, which was ultimately achieved during the mid-1800s, with the population of slaves in Pennsylvania dropping to only 64 by 1840.

The abolitionist society in Pennsylvania that had been started by ten Quakers reorganized in 1784, and three years later became the Pennsylvania Abolition Society (PAS). The two leaders of the organization, as the abolitionist movement gained momentum across the country, were Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush. During that time period, the Pennsylvania Abolition Society did more than any other group to assist slaves seeking freedom.

Pennsylvania’s early departure from the slave trade encouraged slaves escaping bondage from northern Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware to seek out the State as a new home. The route to freedom to Pennsylvania later became known as the "Underground Railroad." Free blacks found that Philadelphia offered more opportunities and its free black community better protection than their prior homes.

Congress, in 1793, passed a fugitive slave law with the intent to discourage the escape of slaves. The law gave slave owners the authority to reclaim their fugitives in the local courts and fined anyone harboring runaways. The growing influence of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society made the law difficult to enforce. PAS members, many of whom were lawyers, defended runaways in the courts and lobbied the state legislature to broaden the scope of the 1780 law to include complete emancipation.

The PAS continued their work until the War Between the States in the 1860s. The society repeatedly petitioned to end slavery, building a countrywide reputation for its work.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary