Part 3 (1/2)

vi, pp 168, 173, 177, 178, 401; Moore, _Notes on Slavery_, etc, p

96]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_, p 96]

More effective than the efforts of other sects in the enlightenroes was the work of the Quakers, despite the fact that they were not free to extend their operations throughout the colonies Just as the colored people are indebted to the Quakers for registering in 1688 the first protest against slavery in Protestant America, so are they indebted to this denomination for the earliest permanent and well-developed schools devoted to the education of their race As the Quakers believed in the freedom of the will, human brotherhood, and equality before God, they did not, like the Puritans, find difficulties in solving the probleroes

While certain Puritans were afraid that conversion ht lead to the destruction of caste and the incorporation of undesirable persons into the ”Body Politick,” the Quakers proceeded on the principle that allequal before God, should be considered equal before the law On account of unduly e the relation of man to God the Puritans ”atrophied their social humanitarian instinct”

and developed into a race of self-conscious saints Believing in hu stress upon the relation between man and man the Quakers becaetting rid of an undesirable ele the institution which supplied it, the Quakers endeavored to teach the Negro to be athe duties of citizenshi+p As early as 1672 their attention was directed to this ie Fox[1] In 1679 he spoke outhis sect to instruct and teach their Indians and Negroes ”how that Christ, by the Grace of God, tasted death for every man”[2]

Other Quakers of proht

In 1693 George Keith, a leading Quaker of his day, ca of the slaves as a preparation for emancipation[3] William Penn advocated the eht have every opportunity for iainst the slave trade, denounced also the policy of neglecting theirinterest of this sect in the Negroes was shown later by the develop the been educated and trained to serve as missionaries on that continent[6]

[Footnote 1: Quaker Pamphlet, p 8; Moore, _Anti-slavery_, etc, p

79]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_, p 79]

[Footnote 3: _Special Report of the US Com of Ed_, p 376]

[Footnote 4: Rhodes, _History of the United States_, vol i, p 6; Bancroft, _History of the United States_, vol ii, p 401]

[Footnote 5: Locke, _Anti-slavery_, p 32]

[Footnote 6: _Ibid_, p 30]

The inevitable result of this liberal attitude toward the Negroes was that the Quakers of those colonies where other settlers were so neglectful of the enlightenment of the colored race, soon found the communities the Quakers were persecuted, not necessarily because they adhered to a peculiar faith, not primarily because they had manners and custo the call of duty to help all men they incurred the ill will of theinto America spurious doctrines subversive of the institutions of the aristocratic settleood exa the unchristian attitude of the preachers in most parts of that colony, the Quakers inquired of them, ”Who made you ministers of the Gospel to white people only, and not to the tawny and blacks also?”[1] To show the nakedness of the neglectful clergy there so and preaching to the Negroes that their ene ascendancy over the ly, to make the colored people of that colony inaccessible to these workers it was dee s In 1678 the colony enacted anotherprofession by providing that no person should be allowed to keep a school in Virginia unless he had taken the oath of allegiance and supremacy[2]

Of course, it was inconsistent with the spirit and creed of the Quakers to take this oath

[Footnote 1: Quaker Pae_, vol i, 532; ii, 48, 165, 166, 180, 198, and 204 _Special Report of the US Com of Ed_, 1871, p 391]

The settlers of North Carolina followed the same procedure to check the influence of Quakers, who spoke there in behalf of the inia The apprehension of the do element was such that Governor Tryon had to be instructed to prohibit fro in that colony any person who had not a license froly intended to protect the faith and doctrine of the Anglican Church, rather than to prevent the education of Negroes, it operated to lessen their chances for enlightenment, since missionaries from the Established Church did not reach all parts of the colony[2] The Quakers of North Carolina, however, had local schools and actually taught slaves Some of these could read and write as early as 1731

Thereafter, household servants were generally given the rudilish education

[Footnote 1: Ashe, _History of North Carolina_, vol i, p 389 The saiven to Governor Francis Nicholson]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_, pp 389, 390]

It was in the settlements of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York that the Quakers encountered less opposition in carrying out their policy of cultivating thethese Friends the education of Negroes became the handmaiden of the e, Elihu Coleely confined their attacks to the injustice of keeping slaves, Benja for their improvement as a prerequisite of e up the Negroes to so and” to ”endeavor to the utmost of their Power in the sweet love of Truth to instruct and teach 'eiousness, and learn some Honest Trade or Imployment and then set the of theo free in a very reasonable Tiious Principles will not allow of such Severity, as to keep thee and Slavery”[2]

[Footnote 1: Locke, _Anti-slavery_, etc, p 31]