Anthony Benezet

“Many thousands of our fellow-creatures, as free as ourselves by nature, and equally with us the subjects of Christ's redeeming grace, are yearly brought into inextricable and barbarous bondage; and many, very many, to miserable and untimely ends..”1

Background

Anthony Benezet was born in France in 1713 to Huguenot parents. Following his family's expulsion from France after being labelled as heretics, Benezet settled in London by his second birthday. He received a liberal education, served an apprenticeship for a leading business in London, was setup for a successful career in the commercial world, and even had older brothers who had found success in business. By all accounts, Benezet was destined for a successful life of wealth and comfort. After moving to Philadelphia in 1731, however, Benezet realized that he had little interest in commercial life. Benezet was instead passionate about religion and education, leading him to pursue a career as an educator.

His career in education began in 1742 when he began teaching at a school in Philadelphia chartered by William Penn himself. In 1750 he began to teach Black children in his own home and then in 1755 he started his own all-girls school. His biographer Maurice Jackson argues that his pursuit of teaching came from his "love of books, his mastery of several languages, his love of children, and his passion for the truth."2 While he used his classroom to speak on his passion for truth, particularly regarding the ills of slavery, Benezet knew that there were other ways to make an impact. He proceeded to publish three exceedingly consequential anti-slavery tracts: A Short Account of that Part of Africa Inhabited by the Negroes (1762), A Caution and Warning to Great Britain and Her Colonies, in a Short Representation of the Calamitous State of the Enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions (1766), and Some Historical Account of Guinea (1771). Benezet quickly became one of the most prominent opponents of slavery in the colonies.

While Benezet's written works were among his most consequential influences on later abolitionists, he took more pride in his role as an educator than all else. Benezet opened and taught at the African Free School, continuously solidifying his belief that there were no inherent intellectual differences between White students and Black students.3

Selected Works & Primary Sources

Published in 1762, Benezet provided a detailed view into West African societies. His goal was to convince Friends of the “calamities” that the slave trade had thrust upon African people. Sinha remarks that “even though he did not characterize African societies in all their complexity, Benezet, in an adept reversal of imagery, made Africans appear as the civilized victims of European barbarism.”4

Published in 1766, Benezet wrote that "Thus an unsatiable desire for gain hath become the principal and moving cause of the most abominable and dreadful scene that was perhaps ever acted upon the face of the earth."5 He also asked: "How many of those who distinguish themselves as the Advocates of Liberty, remain insensible and inattentive to the treatment of thousands and tens of thousands of our fellow man."6

Published in 1771, Benezet's Some Historical Account of Guinea was a thorough attack on both slavery and the slave trade. It was reprinted many times in a variety of languages and inspired many future abolitionists.

Legacy

Roger A. Bruns on Benezet's Legacy

Impact on Other Abolitionists

“His writings, many of which were reprinted in Europe, strongly influenced abolitionists such as Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson. John Wesley, after reading Benezet's Some Historical Account of Guinea, wrote his own Thoughts Upon Slavery in 1774, drawing heavily on Benezet's earlier work.”7

Manisha Sinha on Benezet's Legacy

18th Century William Lloyd Garrison

“If there was an eighteenth-century abolitionist who matched the pivotal role of William Lloyd Garrison in the nineteenth century, it was Anthony Benezet.”8

Mary Stoughton Locke on Benezet's Legacy

Gradual Abolition

“There is probably no other man in the period of gradual abolition who did so much for the anti-slavery movement in America as Anthony Benezet”9

Sources

"A caution and warning to Great Britain and her colonies, in a short representation of the calamitous state of the enslaved Negroes in the British dominions. : Collected from various authors, and submitted to the serious consideration of all, more especially of those in power. / By Ant. Benezet." In the digital collection Evans Early American Imprint Collection. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/N08023.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections.
Jackson, Maurice. “The Social and Intellectual Origins of Anthony Benezet’s Antislavery Radicalism.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 66 (1999): 86–112. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27774237. 88
Jackson, Social and Intellectual, 92
Sinha, Manisha. The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition. United Kingdom: Yale University Press, 2016. 22
Jackson, Social and Intellectual, 88
Jackson, Social and Intellectual, 96
Bruns, Roger A. “A QUAKER’S ANTISLAVERY CRUSADE: ANTHONY BENEZET.” Quaker History 65, no. 2 (1976): 81–92. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41946805. 87
Sinha, Manisha. The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition. United Kingdom: Yale University Press, 2016.
Locke, Mary Stoughton. Antislavery in America from the Introduction of African Slaves to the Prohibition of the Slave Trade (1619-1808). United States: Peter Smith, 1965. 28