细节
[FRANKLIN PRINTING.] SMITH, John. The Epistle from our Yearly-Meeting, for New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, Held at Burlington...1760. [Philadelphia: B. Franklin and D. Hall, 1760.] Folio, 4 pages, slight chipping along fore-edge, creases repaired (catching one line of text). In a cloth clamshell case. Provenance: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania (ownership stamp, with later release stamp).
"TO DISCOURAGE THE PRACTICE OF MAKING SLAVES OF OUR FELLOW CREATURES", this report on the Quaker's Yearly Meeting, issued by the Franklin and Hall press, contains a strongly worded admonition against slave owning among the Friends. "We earnestly exhort that Friends do not abate of their Diligence in this weighty Matter," and urges them in no way to "counTEnance the Trade...in any Manner, by buying, selling or keeping" slaves. Philadelphia Quakers were at the vanguard of the anti-slavery movement in the mid-18th century, even though many owned slaves, including William Penn, who justified it on the excuse that he provided humane care and proper religious instruction. But this rising generation, particularly men such as Anthony Benezet, argued that slavery was an intrinsic evil that no moral person could practice or condone. In this same year 1760, Benezet published his "Observations on the inslaving, importing and purchasing of Negroes." By the time of Washington's inauguration, slave owning had been extirpated among the Quakers.
A 6 November 1760 entry in the Franklin and Hall Workbook (No. 2, p.20) identify this as a product of their press: "Mr. James Pemberton Dr for printing 5,000 Yearly Epistles 1 Sheet small Folio." Evans 8603; Miller 746.
"TO DISCOURAGE THE PRACTICE OF MAKING SLAVES OF OUR FELLOW CREATURES", this report on the Quaker's Yearly Meeting, issued by the Franklin and Hall press, contains a strongly worded admonition against slave owning among the Friends. "We earnestly exhort that Friends do not abate of their Diligence in this weighty Matter," and urges them in no way to "counTEnance the Trade...in any Manner, by buying, selling or keeping" slaves. Philadelphia Quakers were at the vanguard of the anti-slavery movement in the mid-18th century, even though many owned slaves, including William Penn, who justified it on the excuse that he provided humane care and proper religious instruction. But this rising generation, particularly men such as Anthony Benezet, argued that slavery was an intrinsic evil that no moral person could practice or condone. In this same year 1760, Benezet published his "Observations on the inslaving, importing and purchasing of Negroes." By the time of Washington's inauguration, slave owning had been extirpated among the Quakers.
A 6 November 1760 entry in the Franklin and Hall Workbook (No. 2, p.20) identify this as a product of their press: "Mr. James Pemberton Dr for printing 5,000 Yearly Epistles 1 Sheet small Folio." Evans 8603; Miller 746.