On this day in 1775, a group of Philadelphia Quakers met at a tavern in the city and adopted a constitution for their newly founded organization, “The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes, unlawfully held in Bondage” otherwise known as the first abolitionist society in the United States. The group would not immediately become active, being hindered by the chaos and confusion of the Revolutionary War which almost immediately followed their formation, they were nonetheless the founders of the American abolitionist movement. In 1784, they were reorganized as “The Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, and for Improving the Condition of the African Race” or simply the “Pennsylvania Abolition Society.”

William Penn, a wealthy Englishman and prominent Quaker, founded the colony of Pennsylvania in 1682 as a place for those facing religious persecution in Europe to live freely.

However, before we get into the history and legacy of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society: let us look back on some crucial Pennsylvania history for some much needed context to this story.

Pennsylvania was founded as a colony in 1682 by a prominent Englishman and leader in the Quaker Religious movement, William Penn. The following year, Penn had received a land grant for his future colony from the English monarch, Charles II, as payment for a debt the king had owed Penn’s late-father. Penn was a member of the Quaker Movement, otherwise known as the Religious Society of Friends, that had risen to prominence in England after being founded by George Fox in the 1640s.

Quakers beliefs stood out from mainstream Christianity and often made them the subject of religious persecution in their native England. But perhaps the most important aspect of the Quaker Movement for the story of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society however, was the inherent egalitarian nature of Quaker beliefs.

Notably for the time, Quakers upheld spirituality equality of men and women. They believed that women had the same authority to preach or lead spiritual worship during a meeting, a Quaker religious congregation, that men did. Furthermore, Fox openly stated in 1671 that Quakers should treat those that they enslaved with kindness and eventually strive to set them free.

Although their influence in Pennsylvania would dwindle over time, the Quaker community was incredibly prominent in early Philadelphia and thus, played a significant role in the early American abolitionist movement. As a matter of fact, the first formal protests of slavery in the early United States were carried out by members of the Quaker community in Pennslyvania. In 1688, Francis Daniel Pastorius, founder of Philadelphia’s historic Germantown neighborhood, took part in the first active protest against slavery in North America alongside three others. A few years later in 1693, George Keith and his followers published “An Exhoration and Caution to Friends Concerning Buying or Keeping of Negros” in which they advised the greater Quaker community that Christian doctrine contradicted slavery and that slaveowners should grant their slaves freedom after “some reasonable time.” This publication became widely regarded as the first printed protest against slavery in North America.

A drawing of prominent abolitionist and Quaker Anthony Benezet from around 1850 which depicts him educating two small Black children.

Abolitionist sentiment had been present in the Quaker community since its first days in North America and most of the most prominent early American abolitionists were Quakers, including the likes of Ralph Saniford, Benjamin Lay, and Anthony Benezet. Activists such as these men were largely responsible for the rise of abolitionist beliefs amongst Quakers, although this shift was gradual. In 1693, the same year as George Keith and his followers protested, Quakers were encouraged at the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting to not buy enslaved people unless they intended to set them free after a certain period of time.

By 1740, the efforts of Quaker abolitionists had achieved some success as the majority of Quakers had stopped buying enslaved people. However, the job was only halfway done as there were still members of the community who believed that just by not purchasing anymore enslaved people and by treating those they already had well, they had fulfilled all their religious obligations. Prominent Quaker abolitionist Anthony Benezet firmly disagreed saying:

“Perhaps thou wilt say, ‘I do not buy any negroes: I only use those left me by my father.’ But is it enough to satisfy your own conscience?”

— Anthony Benezet

Ultimately, the Quaker community of early America became the first group to fully denounce the practice of slavery. By 1776, it was ruled that any Quaker who continued to own slaves would be disowned from the Religious Society of Friends.

Until the 1770s, early American abolitionism was carried out on the efforts of individuals, who although gathered in small groups from time to time, had yet to formally organize on a larger scale. This would change in 1773, with an incident that provoked many Quaker abolitionists into seeking out more effective forms of activism.

A historical marker indicates the location where the tavern in which the first American abolitionist society was founded once stood. You can find it on S Front St. in Philadelphia just across from I-95 Park.

Dinah Nevill, an enslaved woman of Native American and African descent, claimed her freedom in Philadelphia after she was sold alongside her three children to a Virginia slave-owner. Two Quakers, Israel Pemberton and Thomas Harrison, stepped in on Nevill’s behalf and filed a legal suit for her freedom in the court. Although they would eventually lose the case and Nevill would tragically be denied her freedom, the case left many Quakers with the desire to band together and organize more effective action against the practice of slavery.

Thus, that fateful meeting occurred in a Philadelphia tavern on April 14, 1775 and the first abolitionist society in the United States came into existence on this very day 246 years ago.

It was through the efforts of Quaker abolitionists such as these that Pennsylvania became the first state to formally pass legislation ending slavery in 1780. However, the Gradual Abolition Act of 1780 did not immediately end slavery. Instead, it stated that no child born in Pennsylvania from that point on could be enslaved and that children born to enslaved mothers could not be held in bondage past their twenty-eighth birthdays. However, the work of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society was only just beginning at this point.

By 1787, the Pennsylvania Abolition Society (PAS) had adopted a new constitution allowing non-Quakers to join their ranks and elected Benjamin Franklin as their organization’s president. During this time, they also developed their key methods of organizing: petitioning and legal work. During their heyday, lasting approximately from the 1780s to the 1820s, the PAS would concentrate their abolitionist efforts on a main series of goals including fighting against slavery in the political space, providing legal aide to free Black people who were kidnapped as well as escapees from slavery, and empower free communities of color through education and financial support.

For example, when people found ways to subvert the anti-slavery laws of 1780 by continuing to maintain the slave trade in Pennsylvania, the PAS reproduced and circulated an image known as “Plan of an African Ship’s Lower Deck” alongside vivid descriptions of suffering faced by the enslaved persons on the ship to sway public opinion. In 1790, the group was responsible for submitting the first petition to the federal government that called for the abolition of slavery.

This famous image, known as “Plan of an African Ship’s Lower Deck” was first published in American Museum, a monthly magazine published in Philadelphia by Mathew Carey. Responsible for reproducing some of the most important documents in American pol… — This famous image, known as “Plan of an African Ship’s Lower Deck” was first published in *American Museum,* a monthly magazine published in Philadelphia by Mathew Carey. Responsible for reproducing some of the most important documents in American political history, Carey did not shy away from including anti-slavery content in his magazine despite the fact that it might alienate his Southern readers.

Even though slavery was largely on the decline in Pennsylvania at the arrival of the 19th century, free Black communities in the state faced extreme challenges due to the institution’s persistence elsewhere in the United States. Philadelphia’s free Black community was often subjected to aforementioned kidnappings. These kidnappers would later claim that the Black people they had abducted were “fugitive slaves” in order to sell them into enslavement. As a result of these practices, the PAS pushed for a series of laws to be passed to combat the issue. Thus, Pennsylvania enacted a series of laws in 1820 and 1847 that heavily punished this practice of kidnapping.

The PAS were also active in winning individual enslaved people in Pennsylvania their freedom through making legal and financial arrangements with slave-owners, often giving enslaved individuals the financial means to purchase their freedom. Even after securing freedom for an enslaved person, members of the PAS would provide assistance to the individual by helping him find employment, providing him with letters of recommendation, and ensuring that their employer did not exploit them.

Although less successful in this endeavor, the PAS opposed the spread of slavery into new territories that came under American juriscitions. However, as time went on many abolitionists were beginning to grow frustrated with the more conservative efforts of the PAS, believing that that bolder action was needed to confront the spread of slavery. Furthermore, cracks begin to emerge in the advocacy of the PAS. Even though the group maintained that slavery was wrong, the PAS remained segregated until 1842 when they admitted their first Black member, Robert Purvis.

A photograph of the Executive Board of the Pennsylvania Antislavery Society taken in 1851. Standing, from left to right, are Mary Grew, E. M. Davis, Haworth Wetherald, Abby Kimber, J. Miller McKim, and Sarah Pugh. Seated, from left to right, are Oli… — A photograph of the Executive Board of the Pennsylvania Antislavery Society taken in 1851. Standing, from left to right, are Mary Grew, E. M. Davis, Haworth Wetherald, Abby Kimber, J. Miller McKim, and Sarah Pugh. Seated, from left to right, are Oliver Johnson, Mrs. Margaret James Burleigh, Benjamin C. Bacon, Robert Purvis, Lucretia Mott, and James Mott.

One of major flaws of the PAS was that its members seemed to feel that they needed to speak on behalf of the Black community in Philadelphia and beyond, which resulted in them not giving the very people whom they were aiming to help and uplift a central spot in their activist efforts. As a result, new abolitionist organizations began to spring up to meet the demand for more direct, aggressive action against slavery. Robert Purvis, the first Black member of the PAS, launched the Vigilance Committee in 1837 to assist Southern escapees from slavery. Alongside fellow Black abolitionist and New Jersey native William Still, this organization would go on to assist almost a thousand escapees during the 1850s alone.

By the 1830s, the PAS was no longer the leading national abolitionist organization it had once been. New abolitionist groups began to spring up rapidly in Philadelphia during this time: Black and white women in Philadelphia organized to form the Philadelphia Female Antislavery Society in 1833. That same year, Purvis and a group of supporters organized to form the American Antislavery Society. One year after, the Philadelphia Antislavery Society was created followed by the Pennsylvania Antislavery Society a few years later in 1836. In 1845, Purvis was elected as president of the Pennsylvania Antislavery Society where he would work alongside his previous colleague William Still as well as Frederick Douglass.

Founded in the Quaker tradition, the PAS and its members believed in patient persuasion, non-violence, and obeying the the law. It was an organization that believed in patiently working within the existing systems to influence change. Furthermore, the 1830s and 1840s brought about a new generation of abolitionists who were growing tired of seeing the expansion of slavery throughout the United States. Unsatisfied with the methodology of the PAS, abolitionists of the time began to take a more radical stand in their cause.

Regardless of its decline from prominence, the PAS maintained an active role in the abolitionist community up to and throughout the Civil War. They notably joined forces with their more radical counterparts at the Pennsylvania Antislavery Society and Vigilance Committee to secure the freedom of an enslaved woman from North Carolina named Jane Johnson in 1855 by helping her escape and subsequently avoid capture. Furthermore, PAS lawyers such as David Paul Brown remained active, providing enslaved people who had escaped to Pennsylvania earn their freedom in the courts. Up until the 1860s, PAS members continued to run evening schools to provide education to free Black men and women as well as funding day schools for Black children -- a practice they had begun in 1789.

In spite of its shortcomings however, the PAS was the seed from which the American abolitionist movement grew. The creation and prominence of such an organization, founded just a short time before American colonists declared their independence from Great Britain, cannot be understated. As the first organizations of its kind, it is undeniable that the PAS left behind an extraordinary legacy and set a precedent for generations of American reformers.

Philadelphia and the Birth of the Nation’s First Abolitionist Society

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