Slave vs. Enslaved

From the beginnings of slavery in British North America in 1619, when a Dutch ship brought 20 enslaved Africans to the Virginia colony at Jamestown, nearly 240 years passed until the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution officially ended slavery in 1865.

Although some Quakers held slaves, no religious group was more outspoken against slavery from the 1600’s until slavery's end. Quakers were among the earliest to protest the African slave trade, the perpetual bondage of its captives, and the practice of separating enslaved family members by sale to different masters.

Anthony Benezet (Antoine Bénézet), 1713 - 1784, a Quaker of French Huguenot descent, emigrated with his family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1731, four years after he had joined the Religious Society of Friends. In Philadelphia, Benezet urged that the British ban on slavery should be extended to the colonies (and later to the independent states) in North America. Using the Biblical maxim, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," Benezet worked to convince his Quaker brethren that owning slaves was not consistent with Christian doctrine.

In 1742 Benezet began teaching at the Friends' English School of Philadelphia. During this time, he came to realize that the emancipation of slaves was not enough, but that education to prepare them to lead independent, productive lives was required. In 1850, he added to his schedule night classes for slaves. While continuing his classes for slaves, in 1754, Benezet set up his own school, the first public girls' school on the American continent. Then, in 1770, he founded the Negro School at Philadelphia.

Benezet founded the first anti-slavery society, the “Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage.” Reflecting on the name of Benezet’s society, it’s interesting to note that many 21^st century African Americans no longer refer to their ancestors as slaves, but as people who were enslaved. To me, a slave is not an individual human, but chattel; it is a state of being as perceived by the slave owner. An enslaved person is a free individual who has been forced into a position where he is alleged to be chattel, a position he does not accept as his being. Before Abolition, the great majority of Africans in America were not slaves, but were enslaved.