Germantown Quakers protest enslavement
About this date: The year belongs to the petition; its later rediscovery and conservation are separate events.
Four Quakers submit a petition arguing against enslavement and the slave trade by appealing to the ethical obligations owed to other people.
Historical context
The petition challenges practices within a Christian community as well as colonial society. Its existence does not mean the wider Quaker community immediately accepted abolition.
Key points
- The petition uses the Golden Rule in its argument.
- Local and regional meetings refer the matter onward.
- The receiving meetings do not enact the requested change.
People
- Francis Daniel Pastorius
Sources and further reading
- Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery
Historical explanation of the argument and its reception.