From a Legal Vision to Its Revision

After Queen Anne began a two century pursuit of English profits in the Africa-to-America slave trade, with investment in necessary labor to improve their lands, the Quakers (as persuaded by John Woolman of New Jersey) changed course in the Eighteenth century to oppose Quaker ownership or selling of slaves. While in Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson declared that "all men are created equal," a revolutionary rebellion war blamed slavery's existence on King George III. And the unjust taxes ("without representation") imposed on the English colonies would actually survive victory, along with slavery being legally recognized through an 1787 Federal Constitution, which counted slaves. After the American Revolution, Quakers and others organized antislavery and abolitionist societies. They persuaded the Legislature in 1804 to adopt an Act for the Gradual Emancipation of Slavery. They also followed citizens through Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, where principles were discussed at Liberty Halls in small communities. Benjamin Lundy printed "The Genius of Universal Emancipation" and inspired a newspaper called, "The New Jersey Freeman" at Boonton. The Quakers also assisted Black fugitives, seeking safety from slave catchers, pursuing escape in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, along routes of the Underground Railroad. In 1844, being set apart from the Whigs and Democrats, Quaker candidates sought election to aid the Liberty Party support for a nation's President and Vice President seeking to move American ideals.