Having now brought up the proceedings of this little association towards the year 1786, I shall take my leave of it, remarking, that it was the first ever formed in England for the promotion of the abolition of the Slave Trade.  That Quakers have had this honour is unquestionable.  Nor is it extraordinary that they should have taken the lead on this occasion, when we consider how advantageously they have been situated for so doing.  For the Slave Trade, as we have not long ago seen, came within the discipline of the society in the year 1727.  From thence it continued to be an object of it till 1783.  In 1783 the society petitioned parliament, and in 1784 it distributed books to enlighten the public concerning it.  Thus we see that every Quaker, born since the year 1727, was nourished as it were in a fixed hatred against it.  He was taught, that any concern in it was a crime of the deepest dye.  He was taught, that the bearing of his testimony against it was a test of unity with those of the same religious profession.  The discipline of the Quakers was therefore a school for bringing them up as advocates for the abolition of this trade.  To this it may be added, that the Quakers knew more about the trade and the slavery of the Africans, than any other religious body of men, who had not been in the land of their sufferings.  For there had been a correspondence between the society in America and that in England on the subject, the contents of which must have been known to the members of each.  American ministers also were frequently crossing the Atlantic on religious missions to England.  These, when they travelled through various parts of our island, frequently related to the Quaker families in their way the cruelties they had seen and heard of in their own country.  English ministers were also frequently going over to America on the same religious errand.  These, on their return, seldom failed to communicate what they had learned or observed, but more particularly relative to the oppressed Africans, in their travels.  The journals also of these, which gave occasional accounts of the sufferings of the slaves, were frequently published.  Thus situated in point of knowledge, and brought up moreover from their youth in a detestation of the trade, the Quakers were ready to act whenever a favourable opportunity should present itself.

CHAPTER V.

[Sidenote:  Third class of forerunners and coadjutors, up to 1787, consists of the Quakers and others in America.—­Yearly meeting for Pennsylvania and the Jerseys takes up the subject in 1696; and continue it till 1787.—­Other five yearly meetings take similar measures.—­Quakers, as individuals, also become labourers; William Burling and others.—­Individuals of other religious denominations take up the cause also; Judge Sewell and others.—­Union of the Quakers with others in a society for Pennsylvania, in 1774; James Pemberton; Dr. Rush.—­Similar union of the Quakers with others for New York and other provinces.]