Quakers and Slavery

The abolition of slavery was another major social concern of the Society of Friends, which was one of the first organized groups to denounce the institution. Possibly Quakers were so sensitive to the plight of the slave because they could empathize with him-Quakers were frequently poor, often imprisoned during the early years, and persecuted.

Some American Quakers, especially those residing in the southern colonies, did own slaves, but in the late seventeenth century a movement began to eliminate slaveholding among Quakers. In the next century, Anthony Benezet and John Woolman were the most active in arousing fellow Quakers to the evils of slavery. In 1754 they stimulated considerable antislavery sentiment with the publication of the findings of their private investigations on the abuses of the slave trade. Benezet, a teacher in Pennsylvania who had been active in various types of social reform work, devoted himself primarily to the abolition of slavery after 1776. Even more prominent was John Woolman from Mount Holly, New Jersey. Rufus Jones, the Quaker historian, states that "more than any other man, Woolman aided the English-speaking nations to throw off the disgrace of slavery."

Suggestive of the influence of these men is the fact that beginning in 1758, one after another of the quarterly and yearly meetings denounced the institution of slavery and brought pressure to bear on individual Friends to discontinue their slaveholding. Committees were organized in each quarterly meeting to visit the homes of remaining slave owners to persuade them to relinquish their practice of holding human beings in bondage. By 1780, according to Rufus Jones, "no slaves were held by members except in peculiar cases where legal difficulties prevented manumission, as where husband or wife was not a member and would not consent."

Meanwhile, to the south, ranging as far as South Carolina, Sarah Harrison, Norris Jones, and Lydia Hoskins implored Quaker slaveholders to free their black slaves. Naturally the actions of these and other Friends offended many Southerners who were beginning to believe that the entire southern life-style rested on the foundation of slavery. Since slaves in the South represented a considerable amount of wealth, owners were reluctant to lose this investment, especially without receiving any compensation.

Several states took direct legislative action to prevent or, at least, to discourage the Quakers' manumission operations. The North Carolina Assembly in 1796 enacted laws which were aimed directly at the aggressive antislavery Quakers. For example, "no slave shall be set free in any case or under any pretense whatever, except for meritorious service, to be adjudged of and allowed by the County Court and license first had and obtained therefor." In the eyes of their neighbors, Friends who freed their slaves were looked upon with hostility; they soon found themselves living in a society which had become uncomfortable, if not dangerous, for them. It was at this time that many southern Friends began to migrate to the Northwest Territory where slavery had been prohibited in 1787.

Thus, early in the nineteenth century, Ohio began to feel the influence of the Friends in many areas of social concern, but most significantly in the abolitionist movement. Historians have pointed out that perhaps no other sect was so unanimous in its support of abolitionism as the Quakers, but because they were torn between their hostility to slavery and their traditional preference for peaceful rather than violent reform, they did not provide the principal leaders of the movement. Though this statement was probably true nationally, Ohio did produce individuals of Quaker background who became very active in developing the antislavery movement in the state. Moreover, Mount Pleasant became known as a center of antislavery activity in Ohio. Many of the Quakers living there in the early part of the century were the same individuals who had left the South because of their abhorrence of the institution of slavery; some had brought freed slaves with them. Also, the proximity of slave territory, just across the Ohio River in Virginia, made the Jefferson-Belmont county area a natural refuge for escapees from the Wheeling slave market.

By 1816 apparently, Jefferson County and Mount Pleasant had earned reputations well-known to runaway slaves as places where they would be welcomed and receive aid in their quest for freedom, because by that year the Underground Railroad was operating in the area.

No single issue concerning slavery divided the Society of Friends more than the question of members' involvement in the Underground Railroad, which was a series of routes for runaway slaves to follow on their journey to Canada and eventual freedom. Few organizations kindled the fire of resentment among southern slaveholders as did the Underground Railroad. Southerners said the system was robbing them of their rightful property as well as millions of dollars which had been invested in Negro slaves. Though Quakers never officially sponsored the Underground Railroad, many individual Friends played very important roles in the system. Active participation distressed many Quakers, not only because it was a violation of the Fugitive Slave Law (after 1850), but because it necessitated lying when questioned by the authorities-and Quakers traditionally prided themselves on maintaining a reputation for strict honesty. Quakers often would deny there were slaves on their property because they did not recognize that any person could be a slave.

Ohio was one of the leading states in the Underground Railroad since it bordered slave states and was close to Canada. Levi Coffin, a Cincinnati Quaker, was called the "president of the Underground Railroad." He had been raised among Quakers in New Garden, North Carolina, where even as a youth he helped slaves escape along the Underground Railroad. According to his own estimates, Coffin helped more than three thousand slaves escape to freedom during his twenty years of activity in the system.

In the Mount Pleasant area, the Hanes Mill on the Colerain Pike, built by Borden Stanton in 1801, was one of many "stations." According to tradition, there was a tunnel under the mill through which many slaves passed to freedom. Among residences in Mount Pleasant which were known to have hiding places for runaway slaves was Quaker Hill. Members of other religious groups also participated actively in the Mount Pleasant Underground Railroad strategy-the Reverend Benjamin Mitchell, Presbyterian minister, operated a noted station, and the Seceders, led by the Reverend John Walker, were prominent in aiding slaves to gain liberty and in working for abolition.

Mount Pleasant was the center for other antislavery activities also, a strategic location from which to influence Quaker opinion. One Mount Pleasant Friend, Charles Osborn, in 1817 began publishing The Philanthropist, the first American newspaper to advocate the abolition of slavery. Osborn, a native of North Carolina, opposed all colonization schemes because he claimed they were designed for the perpetuation of slavery in the South and for ridding the northern states of freedmen. In 1818 he sold the weekly paper to Elisha Bates, who published it until 1822.

One of the Ohio "agents" for, and contributors to, the paper was Benjamin Lundy, a New Jersey Quaker who migrated to Ohio in 1807. He formed the first Ohio antislavery organization, the Union Humane Society, at St. Clairsville in 1816. In 1821 Lundy moved to Mount Pleasant to begin publishing his own Genius of Universal Emancipation, a monthly wholly devoted to the cause of abolition. Because his publication secured widespread circulation quickly, Lundy became the first really effective force in the antislavery movement in the United States.

Unable to find a printer near Mount Pleasant willing to publish the paper, he walked with the manuscript twenty miles to Steubenville, where it was published on the press of James Wilson, grandfather of Woodrow Wilson. While Lundy waited for the paper to be printed, he worked a few days for a saddle maker (he was a saddle and harness maker by trade) to earn money. In Steubenville he stayed with Benjamin Stanton, a Quaker and uncle of Edwin M. Stanton. Then Lundy carried the papers back to Mount Pleasant, where he sent them out with the postal mark of that town. Eight monthly issues were published in Ohio before Lundy moved his publishing venture to Tennessee in 1822.
Unlike Osborn, Benjamin Lundy supported the aims of the American Colonization Society which was, organized in 1816 due to the inspiration of a Massachusetts Friend, Paul Cuffe, a black. This society hoped to send many free Negroes to Africa as a means of resolving the racial and slavery problems. Some Quakers opposed the society for fear that it would diminish the desire of slaves to seek freedom, while other Quakers supported the society because it might induce slaveholders, who were to be compensated for freeing their slaves, to give up their property. One of Lundy's most important contributions to the movement was the recruitment of the man who became known as the leading abolitionist in pre-Civil War days, William Lloyd Garrison, who later published the noted Liberator in Boston.
One of the more unusual antislavery activities in Mount, Pleasant was the establishment of a free labor store where nothing raised or made by slave labor was bought or sold. Similar stores were organized in several other states, beginning in 1826. When prominent Mount Pleasant residents decided that one way to strike a blow against slavery was to boycott all goods produced by slave labor, they organized the Mount Pleasant Free Produce Company of Ohio in 1848. At a meeting in George K. Jenkins' schoolhouse, it was decided to sell 250 shares of stock at $10 a share to raise capital to purchase goods to be sold, rent space for the store, pay a manager, and provide for the store's initial operation. The stockholders-who included a few non-Friends-elected a five-man board of managers to conduct the everyday business of the company-George K. Jenkins, John W. Watkins, Ezra Cattell, William C. Williams, and Jonathan Binns. The managers in turn elected Jenkins their president and Binns, secretary.

The sixty-seven original stockholders approved articles of association in which they stated that the Free Produce Company was established "for the sale of goods, wares and merchandise in general which shall be exclusively the product of free labor." In the event that the company was not a success, or if the stockholders wished to dissolve it, provision was made that after three years of existence the company could be dissolved by a majority vote of the stockholders. Stocks could be transferred to others with the approval of the board of managers.

The board negotiated with Joseph Williams to take charge of the store and several rooms in Williams' establishment were rented for the free labor store. The board of managers bought its goods in Philadelphia from a Quaker merchant. A committee fixed the retail price on the goods, audited the books, took inventory, and attempted to sell new shares of stock. By the end of 1848 the Free Produce Company showed assets totaling nearly $3,000: by 1850, the net worth was $3,281. No additional stock was sold after 1850. In 1853 the stockholders voted themselves a four percent dividend, though the company was not realty a profit-making organization. The Free Produce Companv apparently did a fairly good business for the first few years of its existence, selling a variety of merchandise ranging from groceries to dry goods-but not tobacco. Because of the Quaker aversion to use of tobacco, no smoking or chewing tobacco, snuff, or cigars were sold.

In the next few years the position of storekeeper changed hands several times and various attempts were made through advertising to gain greater sales. Never the less, the stockholders of the Free Produce Company became disgruntled and grew fearful that they might lose the money they had originally invested. in the early part of 1857 at a special meeting of the stockholders, a vote of 160 to 22 called for the dissolution of the company by the spring of that year. Stockholders were encouraged to buy goods from the store rather than to ask for cash when they sold their shares of stock. The remainder of the merchandise was sold at public auction and the proceeds were divided among the stockholders in proportion to the amount of stock held by each.

The closing of the Free Produce Company after nine years was not caused by any lessening of antislavery sentiment in Mount Pleasant. In fact, the antislavery attitude was more pronounced in the immediate pre-Civil War years, as witnessed by the increased activity of the Underground Railroad in the region. Rather, the cause for the dissolution seemed to be a fear of economic loss on the part of individual stockholders. Possibly also contributing was the Friends' slowly growing conviction, especially after 1845, that political action was going to be the only solution to the slavery issue.

Prior to the Civil War Friends participated in antislavery organizations which included members of many religious denominations. The continuing prominence of Mount Pleasant as an antislavery center was attested when the 1837 convention of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, the first major abolition meeting in Ohio, was held at Mount Pleasant. At the close of the Civil War, work among the freedmen became the main social concern of the Society of Friends. Now Quakers could cooperate with the government, rather than confront it, to assist the Negro. Quaker groups all over the United States helped form relief agencies to aid the Negroes with food, clothing, shelter, and education. Levi Coffin, for one, helped organize the Western Freedmen's Aid Commission which sent aid to freedmen in Mississippi and Arkansas. This practical relief work was yet another expression of the compassion for people in need which Friends have shown through the years.