FEATURE

The Pennsylvania Abolition Society: Restoring a Group to Glory By Richard S. Newman “ t is the nature of great events to obscure the great events that came before them,” the noted 19th-century historian Francis Parkman once wrote. There is no need to tell that to the Pennsylvania Abolition Society (PAS). Once the leading abolitionist organization in the world, the PAS was eclipsed by a more radical (and media-conscious) brand of abolitionism in the years leading to the Civil War. IEveryone knows those abolitionists: William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Lydia Maria Child. Just a couple of generations ago scholars thought these

Top of Page: Old Rising Sun Tavern, birthplace of ultraradical reformers even caused the Civil War! And the PAS. Watercolor by David Kennedy. what of the PAS? It rates barely a mention even in

Background: Excerpt from draft of an antislavery textbooks dedicated to the struggle against slavery. memorial to Congress from the PAS, Feb. 3, Rich Newman teaches at Rochester Institute of Technology. He is the author of The Transformation 1790, signed by PAS president Benjamin of American Abolitionism (2002) and a forthcoming book, Black Founder: Richard Allen, African Franklin. PAS Papers. Americans and the Early Republic.

1775 The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes unlawfully held in Bondage (Pennsylvania Abolition Society) founded. Meetings suspended in November. 1780 PA legislature enacts law for the gradual abolition of slavery.

6 Pennsylvania LEGACIES November 2005 The Pennsylvania Abolition Society: Restoring a Group to Glory

This omission is truly Benjamin Franklin. Society Portrait After Franklin’s death in unfortunate. For the PAS was not Collection. 1790, the group continued only the first abolition society to raise abolitionist anywhere in the western world, it has 2,000 members consciousness. The remained active ever since its would officially PAS wrote to and organization in 1775. Now that is join the PAS, and dealt with reformers dedication to the cause of racial many more in Britain, France, justice. But longevity is only one reformers would and Jamaica, as well reason to look again at the PAS, for express sympathy as American the group not only helped secure and with its motives. governors, protect abolitionist laws in While men of congressmen, and Pennsylvania during America’s standing joined the jurists. It forwarded revolutionary years but its members group—from copies of the group’s consistently attacked slavery in an America’s leading constitution, abolitionist age when many American statesmen doctor (Benjamin Rush) laws and legal opinions, and hoped to avoid the sensitive and to its leading jurist (William antislavery essays to virtually divisive issue. Silence on slavery is Rawle)—so too did tailors, middling anyone who could help the cause. golden, George Washington observed merchants, and candlemakers. British reformer Granville Sharp when Pennsylvania abolitionists No one offers a better glimpse wrote that he felt a “deep sense . . . issued the first antislavery petitions to into the hopes of PAS activists than of obligation to the PAS for the Congress in 1790. America is better Poor Richard himself. A former honour . . . they confer upon me by than that, the PAS constantly replied. northern slaveholder, Ben Franklin enrolling my name in the number of In the words of famed black minister became PAS president in 1787 and their corresponding members.” As its Richard Allen, the PAS was “the helped it gain official incorporation contact list illustrated, the PAS was friend of those who hath no helper.” by the state in 1789—giving particularly keen on gaining the Roughly a decade after it first abolitionism the standing of, say, a support of governing elites. gathered in 1775 at the Rising Sun bank. As Temple University scholar Inside the Quaker state, the PAS Tavern, the PAS made Philadelphia David Waldstreicher has brilliantly remained vigilant against attempts to the worldwide capital of the burgeoning abolitionist movement. The PAS’s first incarnation . . . the PAS made Philadelphia the comprised a small group of men who worldwide capital of the burgeoning wanted to expand Quaker attacks on slavery. Quaker-style abolitionism abolitionist movement. (not to mention the consciousness- raising tactics of an Anthony Benezet shown, Franklin accommodated to rescind Pennsylvania’s gradual or John Woolman) offered a model slavery for most of his life. Yet abolition law—the first of its kind in for all Americans. After a lull during Franklin also came to see the western world. Passed in 1780, the Revolution (and Benezet’s death), abolitionism as part of a momentous the law promised slavery’s gradual the PAS was revived. change sweeping through western demise in Pennsylvania: all slaves In the magical year of 1787, just society. Slavery, Franklin knew by born after that date would be free at as American leaders gathered in the the 1780s, was a dirty word. His age 28. While it is easy to harrumph City of Brotherly Love to form a voluminous papers tell the tale of his now at this half-way measure, it was more perfect union, the PAS transformation. For much of his life, a model for black as well as white reorganized itself to give new energy “abolition” had nothing whatsoever activists in its time. Indeed, no to American abolitionism. As liberty to do with racial slavery. Franklin sooner had the law taken shape than loving Americans and Christians, the initially used the word when fugitive slaves and kidnapped free group’s constitution told the world, referring to things like colonial fears African Americans would try to the PAS’s members would “use such that England would abolish trial by make it to “free” Pennsylvania. Here means as are in their power to jury. After Franklin joined the PAS, was the true beginning of American extend the blessings of freedom to however, he used “abolition” only in sectionalism. And the PAS was in the every part of the human race.” reference to battling bondage. And middle of it all. Antislavery talk was nice—but he excitedly wrote to friends around The group’s abolitionist strategy abolitionist action all the better. Over the world about the wonders of the rested on twin pillars: petitioning the next several decades, nearly PAS. and legal work. For decades, the

1784 PAS reactivated. 1787 Richard Allen and Absalom Jones found the Free African Society.

November 2005 Pennsylvania LEGACIES 7 The Pennsylvania Abolition Society: Restoring a Group to Glory

group’s pestering petitions asked with great success. If a slave fled to The early 19th century proved state and national governments to Pennsylvania and had children to be an era of transformation both protect free African Americans, there, the PAS challenged the for the PAS and American curtail the domestic trade, ban master’s right to the kids—again, abolitionism. By the 1820s, the overseas slave trading, and strike at with much success. Such legal institution of slavery had grown slavery in the District of Columbia. battles did not stop slavery from impressively in the South and “[We] have observed with great growing, but they sure upset many Southwest, offsetting the passage of Satisfaction,” the group’s first southern slaveholders. gradual abolition laws in every federal petition told Congress, “that The PAS had a complex northern state. And slavery—from many important & salutary Powers relationship with Pennsylvania’s free its role in cotton and sugar are vested in you for ‘promoting the black community. On the one hand, cultivation to the traffic in enslaved Welfare & securing the blessings of liberty to the People of the United States.’” Why not make that statement ring true “without distinction of Color”? The federal government, in short, should be in the business of promoting abolitionism. That notion was none too popular, even in the 1790s. The PAS memorial was essentially shelved, but not before Georgians and South Carolinians excoriated Pennsylvania abolitionists. Years later, on the eve of secession, one Georgia disunionist would recall that abolitionist agitation of the federal government dated to that first Congress with those pesky Pennsylvania activists. Legal work remains one of the most undervalued facets of the PAS’s activities. Above: Opinion of William Rawle in the case of the slave Kitty, 1815. Kitty From the 1780s escaped from slavery in Virginia in about 1808 and had three children born in onward, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania. Rawle wrote in favor of the freedom of her children. PAS Papers. abolitionists ran the Left: William Rawle. Lithograph from a portrait painted by order most important legal- of the Bar of Philadelphia. Society Portrait Collection. aid system for endangered African it rendered people themselves—formed a critical Americans anywhere. True, important aid by part of a growing American Pennsylvania reformers finding apprentice- economy. What would Pennsylvania believed that slave property ships for former abolitionists do now? Tactical had constitutional standing in slaves, opening schools, debates broke out within the group. southern states; one could not and even offering business loans to But the PAS eventually stayed its simply free all slaves. But PAS Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. course. Gradual abolitionism and a lawyers also believed that On the other hand, the PAS lawyerly chipping away at slavery’s abolitionists could manipulate remained a segregated organization margins were its past, present, and bondage via the law. If a Maryland until the 1830s. It never dawned on future. master gave his or her slave the group to ask black leaders to But a competitor soon emerged permission to visit family in “free” become fellow activists. For all of with a new answer to America’s Pennsylvania, and that enslaved the group’s incredibly innovative racial ills: colonization. The person refused to return to bondage, abolitionist activity, it would not colonization idea had been around the PAS took up the case—often innovate interracial activism. since the 1770s, attracting attention

1787 PAS reorganizes and revises its constitution. 1789 PAS incorporated.

8 Pennsylvania LEGACIES November 2005 The Pennsylvania Abolition Society: Restoring a Group to Glory

immediate abolition and full . . . the PAS remained a segregated equality for African Americans. organization until the 1830s. . . . For all Gradualism now became suspect. “Has abolition gone defunct in of the group’s incredibly innovative Pennsylvania,” some old-time activists wondered? Ironically the abolitionist activity, it would not headquarters of immediatism would innovate interracial activism. be formed in the PAS’s backyard. In 1833, “Garrisonian” reformers met from black as well as white anticolonization forces. Boston’s in the home of black activist James reformers. In 1816, the American David Walker offered the keynote to McCrummill to inaugurate the Colonization Society (ACS) gave black anticolonization protest when American Anti-Slavery Society. formal shape to the idea of in 1829 he asked Americans to read Still, the PAS was in no way exporting freed slaves to Africa. their own Declaration of inactive before the Civil War. Some Luminaries lined up behind the Independence and reject the ACS. A of its members joined in the new ACS: James Madison, Henry Clay, more trenchant critique of abolitionist crusade (the first future Harvard president Edward colonization came from Richard immediatist antislavery society Everett. In Pennsylvania, the Allen, who called America “our appeared in Philadelphia in 1834, colonization movement spawned Mother Country.” attracting key PAS members). over 80 auxiliary societies by 1830. Clearly, by the 1820s Others worked with fugitive slaves, The flagship group, the abolitionism was in a period of flux. became further involved in black Pennsylvania Colonization Society, A new generation of reformers education efforts, and remained formed in 1826, firmly believed that would soon realize, in fact, that the dedicated to a more moderate brand colonization made abolition more movement needed to change with of abolitionism. PAS member palatable to southern slaveholders. It the times. Abolitionists needed to Passmore Williamson, for example, attracted northern supporters, too, radicalize the antislavery struggle also joined the Pennsylvania Anti- who viewed free black people as and merge the formal abolitionist Slavery Society and helped fugitives anathema to a white republic. For movement with the first time since the early days of segregated black the Revolution, then, white abolitionist allies. And Americans, North and South, united this is exactly what behind a single “antislavery” happened in the three movement, albeit one that pictured decades leading to the African Americans—and not Civil War— bondage—as America’s enduring abolitionism became problem. an integrated mass To most African Americans, of movement. course, colonization seemed like By the 1830s, new expulsion. And while some black ideas radically leaders flirted with the ACS, most transformed the firmly opposed it. And what of the abolitionist landscape. PAS? It did not take a strong public Interracial antislavery stand against colonization until the groups that debuted in late 1820s. In other words, in a New England spread period in which both slavery and west. Drawing from a antiblack feeling were growing, the rising evangelical PAS cooled its exertions. movement that sought At the same time, African to eradicate sin from Americans amplified their protest American society, these activity, drawing both on traditional so-called “modern” forms of black activism abolitionists embraced (pamphleteering, sermons, public the doctrine of meetings) and new ones (forming black newspapers and a black Membership certificate for the convention movement) to rally Pennsylvania Colonization Society.

1793 Congress enacts first fugitive slave law. 1794 African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas founded, with Absalom Jones as minister.

November 2005 Pennsylvania LEGACIES 9 ANTISLAVERY WOMEN FIND A VOICE By Margaret Hope Bacon

On December 9, 1833, a small group of invited three women to participate in the Philadelphia women, black and white, ceremonies. Abby Kelley Foster, the fiery gathered to form the Philadelphia abolitionist whose election to a Female Anti-Slavery Society. Some of committee had raised the issue of them had been present as spectators a woman’s rights in the American Anti- few days earlier when William Lloyd Slavery Society, said she was unable Garrison organized the American to speak (she was suffering from a Anti-Slavery Society, but as women throat ailment) but congratulated the were not invited to join. Nor were PAS on its “grand work in lifting up they welcome in the Pennsylvania the oppressed and down trodden.” Abolition Society, which remained all Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, the white until 1842 and all male until black poet, gave a powerful speech the early 20th century. The demanding action against the White Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery League and the Ku Klux Klanners of the Society, however, became a powerful South. agent of the antislavery movement, and The sensation of the gathering was, continued until 1870. It has often been Lucretia Mott. Society Portrait Collection. however, a speech by Lucretia Mott, now referred to as the cradle of women’s 83 years old. Henry Wilson, vice rights. president of the United States, introduced Mott with the The women of the new society soon discovered that words, “I propose now to present to you one of the they were hampered in their antislavery work by most venerable and noble of American women, whose restrictions on woman’s role in society. In response, voice for forty years has been heard and tenderly such members as Lucretia Mott and Sarah and touched many noble hearts. Age has dimmed her eye Angelina Grimké began advocating for increased rights and weakened her voice, but her heart, like the heart of for women. Through their insistence, the Pennsylvania a wise man and wise woman, is yet young.” Anti-Slavery Society accepted women members in 1837 After a storm of applause Lucretia Mott stepped and the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1839, though forward and recited in a firm, clear voice a poem by the election of Abby Kelley of Lynn, Massachusetts, to William Wordsworth: a committee in 1840 led to a split in the organization. I’ve heard of hearts unkind, kind words In that same year, a World Anti-Slavery With coldness still returning Convention convened in London. The British Alas, the gratitude of men antislavery movement had not experienced much Hath oftener left me mourning. pressure to include women. Thus, when women Lucretia Mott then went on to say that she had delegates of the Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts come to the meeting without the slightest intention of antislavery societies arrived, they were refused seats. saying a word to a society in which women were not Lucretia Mott protested this exclusion so vigorously expected to take part. However, the fact that there was that she won the allegiance of the young bride of now a union between the PAS and American Anti- delegate Henry Stanton. Eight years later, in July 1848, Slavery Society made it possible for her to speak, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Mott joined together and despite a severe cold. She would just say a few words to called the world’s first woman’s rights convention in remind her listeners that much remained to be done for Seneca Falls, New York. the education of black people and to stop the outrages Through much of the 19th century, the women of being perpetrated against them in the South. It was the the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society had few moral influence of the antislavery cause that had won dealings with the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. them emancipation, and that influence must be brought Nevertheless, when the society held its 100th to bear once more in reconstruction. She sat down to a anniversary celebration on April 14, 1875, the PAS storm of applause. t

find freedom in the decade before through Philadelphia. Williamson Looking back now, we might call the Civil War. In a celebrated case eventually was sent to prison for the PAS the NAACP of its day. Or we from 1855, he and black activist several months, where he and might simply refer to it as the William Still helped an enslaved antislavery luminaries turned his cell world’s first abolition society. woman from North Carolina (named into an abolitionist media center. Whatever the label, we should never Jane Johnson) flee her master, a Even Frederick Douglass paid his forget the PAS’s long and important well-known congressman traveling respects with a visit. history of abolitionist activism. t

1794 Richard Allen founds Bethel A.M.E. Church. 1816 American Colonization Society founded.

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