Page:Notices of Negro slavery as connected with Pennsylvania.djvu/19

Rh liberty, they were willing to extend its blessings universally. In 1696, several papers from the subordinate meetings having been read, the Yearly Meeting, after deliberation, issued this advice,"That Friends be careful not to encourage the bringing in of any more negroes; and that such as have negroes be careful of them, bring them to meeting, and have meetings with them in their families, and restrain them from loose and lewd living, as much as in them lies, and from rambling abroad on first days." In this year also, George Keith and his friends, who had seceded from the Quakers, published a paper on the subject, containing some very sound and cogent arguments. They asserted that the negroes were men, the common objects, with the rest of mankind, of redeeming love; that they had been taken by violence from their native land, and were unjustly detained in bondage; and finally, that the whole institution of slavery was contrary to the religion of Christ, the rights of man, and sound reason and policy. The next efforts in favor of the negroes were made by the founder of our State. A mind so liberal, expansive, and benevolent as his could not be indifferent to a subject of this highly interesting character; and, from the first introduction of slaves into Pennsylvania, he appears to have been desirous of improving their condition. Accordingly, in 1700, he introduced the subject to the monthly