Begin forwarded message: > From: [email protected] > Date: Sat Jan 04, 2003 12:58:21 PM US/Eastern > To: [email protected] > Subject: [Q-R] Query > Reply-To: [email protected] > > I don't know whether the query by M.E. Sorensen, first submitted on > 01/03/2003 has been satisfactorily answered. > > The comment: "Manumitted slaves" in Quaker records, probably meant > that the > person or persons named in the records had manumittted their slaves. > > In the years from 1680 to 1780 there was much slave-holding among > well-to-do > Quakers in the American Colonies. Although this practice was especially > prevalent in the South, below the Mason-Dixon Line, it also seemed to > extend > as far north as among Friends in Newport, Rhode Island, although I am > not > very familiar with early New England Quaker history. I am fairly > certain > that there was some slave-holding among Friends in Southern New > Jersey, in > Philadelphia, and in Bucks County, PA. > > In the mid-1700's, under the leadership of John Woolman and others, > there was > a campaign to rid the Society-of-Friends of slave-holding, and by 1780 > the > practice was being rapidly eliminated by Friends,even in the South. > > One of the leaders among the abolitionists among Friends in Delaware was > Warner Mifflin, who lived in his later years at Camden, south of Dover, > Delaware. When I was doing research in the Pennsylvania Historical > Library > at 1300 Locust Street in Philadelphia, I saw a large book filled with > Manumission Records, compiled by Warner Mifflin and by Edward Lay, a > Friend > from Cold Spring Meeting near Lewes, Delaware. In the years ca. 1774 > and > 1775,.these Friends seemed to have travelled from plantation to > plantation in > Kent County, Delaware, persuading the Quaker proprietors to manumit > (free) > their slaves. There are long lists of Blacks who were given their > freedom by > this effort. > > It is my understanding that, while Blacks were allowed to attend Quaker > Meeting in most neighborhoods, only a few actually became members of > Friends. > > In early Colonial times, there were many White indentured servants, > both men > and women, who had had their passage from the British Isles paid, with > the > understanding that they would be req uired to work for up to eight > years > in the Colonies to pay back their passage money and maintenance. > However, at > the end of this period of indenturship, they became free citizens. > Black > slaves from Africa were never granted their freedom. > > - Herbert Standing, 1806 Bear Creek Road, Earlham, Iowa 50072. > > > ==== QUAKER-ROOTS Mailing List ==== > HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS LIST: Send an email to: > [email protected] > The ONLY word in your message should be UNSUBSCRIBE. >