Organizations

This page features brief descriptions of some important antislavery groups that existed in antebellum American, with a special focus on organizations based in the Philadelphia area with substantial Quaker membership.


Primary Sources Icon SEARCH primary sources  Commentary Icon READ scholarly commentary  Relationship Map Icon Icon EXPLORE relationship map

 

American Anti-Slavery Society

American Anti-Slavery Society magnifier relationships

Founded in Philadelphia in 1833, the American Anti-Slavery Society was a more radical alternative to the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. The Anti-Slavery Society advocated a broadly based anti-slavery movement, and insisted upon immediate and complete emancipation without compensation for slaveholders. It published an official weekly newspaper, the National Anti-Slavery Standard. Auxiliary groups included the Pennsyvlania Anti-Slavery Society, the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, and the Young Men's Anti-Slavery Society.

American Colonization Society

American Colonization Society magnifier relationships

In December 1816, delegates met in Washington, D.C. and organized the American Colonization Society. They voted to begin seeking voluntary removal of U.S. blacks to Africa. That same year, thirty-eight African-American passengers were taken to Sierra Leone by a merchant named Paul Cuffee, a free black member of the Society of Friends. The Colonization Movement was controversial within the Society of Friends.

Free Produce Society

Free Produce Society of Pennsylvania magnifier relationships

The free-produce movement was a boycott against goods produced by slave labor. In 1826, Friends in Wilmington, Delaware, drew up a charter for a formal free-produce organization and Baltimore Quaker Benjamin Lundy opened a store that sold only goods obtained by labor from free people. In 1827, the movement expanded with the formation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania of the "Free Produce Society" founded by Thomas M'Clintock and others. Though the free-produce movement was not intended as a sectarian response to slavery, most of the free-produce society were comprised of Quakers. See also Philadelphia Free Produce Association of Friends.

TOP

Friends Association for the Aid and Elevation of the Freedmen

Friends Association for the Aid and Elevation of the Freedmen magnifier relationships

Established by Hicksite Quakers in 1864, this association provided charitable assistance to recently freed slaves. It opened around the same time as an equivalent Orthodox Quaker group (Friends' Freedmen's Association), and about two years after the Women's Association of Philadelphia for the Relief of the Freedmen—a largely but not exclusively Quaker group. The New York Association of Friends for the Relief of Those Held in Slavery and the Improvement of the Free People of Color also existed at the same time.

NY Assocation of Friends for the Relief of those Held in Slavery

New York Association of Friends for the Relief of Those Held in Slavery and the Improvement of the Free People of Color magnifier relationships

A Quaker society in New York City, organized in 1839. Its purpose was to support the abolition of slavery and educational charities for blacks. Similar organizations, including the Friends Association for the Aid and Elevation of the Freedmen, were founded in Philadelphia 25 years later.

Manumission Society Members

The New-York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves,and Protecting Such of Them as Have Been, or May Be Liberated magnifier relationships

Formed in 1785— about a decade after the first American antislavery society, the Pennsyvlania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery—the New York society opened the African Free School two years afterwards. Its original members included John Jay and Alexander Hamilton. Later, many members of the Society of Friends, including Isaac T. Hopper, joined the society.

Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society

Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society magnifier relationships

The American Anti-Slavery Society was organized in Philadelphia in 1833, but the separate Pennsylvania branch of the society was not opened until 1837.

TOP

Pennsylvania Hall Association

Pennsylvania Hall Association magnifier relationships info

The Pennsylvania Hall Association was a stockholders association formed in 1837 to erect a building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, dedicated "to Liberty and the Rights of Man." The Hall was erected on 6th Street, between Cherry and Race Streets. Many of the primary movers behind the Association were Quakers involved in the anti-slavery movement. The building was opened on May 14, 1838, but, as a symbol of the abolitionist movement, it was destroyed by an angry mob on May 17, 1838.

Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery

Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery magnifier relationships

Commonly known as the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, this was the first anti-slavery organization in the United States. Begun in Philadelphia in 1774 by the Quaker Anthony Benezet, its membership was substantially composed of Friends. It was reorganized in 1784, and again in 1787, when it was renamed the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, and for Improving the Condition of the African Race. In 1833, abolitionists frustrated with the slow pace and compromising attitude of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society founded the more radical American Anti-Slavery Society and its subsidiary Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.

Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends

Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends magnifier relationships

Opened at Old Kennett, Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1853 as a separation from meetings in the Western Quarterly Meeting of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (Hicksite). Progressive Friends were part of a reform movement which developed among Hicksite Friends in the 1840s, but also included many non-Quaker liberals and radicals. The largest group became formally organized as the Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends, which met at Longwood in Chester County, Pennsylvania, from 1853 to 1940. Progressive Friends advocated a religion of humanity which stressed the inherent goodness and perfectibility of humankind and promoted such reform causes as abolition of slavery, temperance, women's rights, opposition to capital punishment, prison reform, homestead legislation, pacifism, Indian rights, economic regulation, and practical and co-educational schooling. A similar group organized in Waterloo, N.Y. as the Yearly Meeting of Congregational Friends.

TOP

Philadelphia Free Produce Association of Friends

Philadelphia Free Produce Association of Friends magnifier relationships

The free-produce movement was a boycott against goods produced by slave labor. Though the free-produce movement was not intended as a sectarian response to slavery, most of the free-produce associations were Quakers: the idea of a boycott of slave produce dates from at least the mid 18th century when it was advocated by John Woolman, Joshua Evans and others. The Philadelphia Free Produce Association of Friends, founded in 1846, was a specificially Quaker organization.

Underground Railroad

Underground Railroad magnifier relationships info

The Underground Railroad was not a formal society, but a loosely-organized network of abolitionists dedicated to helping slaves escape to freedom. These "conductors" of the Underground Railroad hid runaways in safehouses along the route north, formed vigilance committees in major cities, and provided legal advice to runaways who were captured. It is impossible to pin down a precise start date, but one of the eariest references to runaway slaves receiving organized assistance comes from a letter written by George Washington in 1786. When a neighbor's slave escaped, Washington wrote to Robert Morris that "a society of Quakers, formed for such purposes, have attempted to liberate him...acting repugnant to justice...[and] in my opinion extremely impoliticly with respect to the State." Quakers remained a dominant presence in the Underground Railroad network for almost two centuries, and many prominent Friends—including Isaac T. Hopper, Thomas Garrett, and Elijah F. Pennypacker—were known to be involved.

Yearly Meeting of Congregational Friends

Yearly Meeting of Congregational Friends magnifier

Progressive Friends in the Scipio, Farmington and Michigan Quarterly Meetings separated in 1848 from Genesee Yearly Meeting: Waterloo Yearly Meeting of opened in 1849 under the Basis of Religious Association (1848). It was composed of the former Junius Monthly Meeting and other Friends separating from the Scipio Quarterly Meeting. It became the Annual Meeting of the Friends of Human Progress in 1854, and continued until approximately 1884. See also Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends.

TOP