1774 Salem Monthly Meeting Anti-Slavery Petition

Date: 1774 [unknown]
Location: Salem, New Jersey
Surname/tag: Quakers

This Petition Does Not Call for The Abolition of Slavery

• Author: Salem Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends : 1676-1827)
• Date: 1774
• Description: Petition signed by members of Salem Monthly Meeting calls for an end to slavery in New Jersey.
• Notes: Salem Monthly Meeting was established in 1676. It became part of Salem Quarterly Meeting in 1682. In 1827, after the Hicksite Separation in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, the meeting split into Hicksite and Orthodox branches. In 1955, after the two Philadelphia Yearly Meetings reunited, there remained two Salem Monthly Meetings. Salem Monthly Meeting at Woodstown, the former Orthodox meeting, was discontinued in 1977. Salem Monthly Meeting at Salem, the former Hicksite meeting, is currently an active monthly meeting.

• Link: http://triptych.brynmawr.edu/cdm/ref/collection/HC_QuakSlav/id/10007

Note: These images were not obtained from this library consortium. They were obtained directly from the Salem Monthly Meeting.

Transcription

TO HIS EXCELLENCY

WILLIAM FRANKLIN, ESQ.

Captain-General, Governor, and Commander in Chief, in and over the Province of New-Jersey, Chancellor and Vice-Admiral in the same, &c.

To the Honorable His Majesty's COUNCIL,--And

To the Honorable HOUSE of REPRESENTATIVES of the said Province,

The PETITION of sundry Inhabitants of the County of Salem

HUMBLY SHEWETH,

THAT by the Laws of GOD and Nature, Liberty, being the inherent and universal Right of Man, cannot be forfeited but as a Satisfaction to publick Justice, or by the voluntary Act of the Individual--That the municipal Laws of England are founded on this Principle, from which its excellent Constitution derives those superior Advantages which so eminently distinguish it from all others yet known--And that the Toleration of personal Slavery, among a free People, is not only inimical and destructive to the Constitution, but, in its Consequences, greatly pernicious to the Morals of the People among whom in prevails, and utterly inconsistent with the Spirit and whole Tenor of the Christian Religion.

YOUR PETITIONERS therefore, impressed with these Sentiments, and affected with the Cruelty and Injustice of a Trade whereby many Thousands of our Fellow-Creatures are yearly forced from the State of Liberty assigned them by Providence, and the nearest Connections in Life, do earnestly crave the Attention of the Legislature to such Measures as may be judged most effectual to suppress this complicated Evil, by prohibiting the further Importation of the Natives of Africa into this Province, and enabling their Possessors, when so disposed, to set them at Liberty, by such Alteration of the Laws of this Government relating to Slaves, as the Legislature in its Wisdom shall judge to be expedient. Such as are of the People called Quakers only excepting to the Stile

Alphabetical Listing of Signers

A	D	K	Andrew Sinnickson, Jr.
David Allen*	John Dickeson	Edward Keasby	Thos Sinnickson
Jedidiah Allen	George Dickinson	L	Daniel Smith
John Ambler	E	Bateman Lloyd	Hill Smith
James Atkinson	John Eaton	Abraham Lord	James Smith*
B	Charles Ellet	M	Joseph Smith
Zaccheus Ballinger	F	James Mason	Richard Smith, Jr.
Samuel Barber	Samuel Finley	John Mason	Samuel Smith*
John Barnes	Ezra Firth	Ebenezer Miller, Jr.	Wm Smith*
Daniel Bassett	G	Jacob Miller	Robert Sparks
Elisha Bassett, Sr.	Lewis Goodwin	Josiah Miller	Andrew Standley
Isaac Bassett	Thomas Goodwin	Isaac Moss	Jos. Stonebanks
Henry Bilback	William Goodwin	Ic Mukins	T
Aaron Bradway	Wallpole Gregory	N	Benjamin Test*
John Brick	H	Samuel Nicholson	Francis Test
Joseph Brick	Richard Haines	Wm. Nicholson	Benjamin Thompson
Richard Brick	Nathaniel Hall	P	Judah Townsend
James Buchanan	Archibald Hamilton	Wm. Peterson	G. Trenchard
Jos Burroughs*	Thomas Hancock	R	W
C	Wm. Hancock, Jr.	Daniel Ridgway	Elijah Ware
P. Carpenter	Tho. Hartley	John Rowan	Robt Wilson
Joseph Champneys	Moses Hill	S	Richard Wistar
David Colson	J	Joseph Sharp, Jr.	Samuel Withers
Joseph Copner	R. Johnson	Joseph Shinn	Joseph Wood

• Denotes a name that appears both on this petition and on the 1783 Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Petition to Congress.