interest was awakened, until, at the yearly meeting in London, in 1727, it was resolved, "That the im porting of negroes was cruel and unjust, and was therefore, severely censured by the meeting." Ii 1760, they went farther, and resolved to exclude from their Society all who participated in the iniquitous traffic.
One of the first instances on record of a voluntary surrender of slave property, was by a Mr. Mifflin, a Friend, who, on inheriting forty slaves from his father, gave them their liberty.[1]
But the Friends were not alone in their noble efforts to crush this iniquity. Eminent divines and statesmen entered the field against the traffic. The Rev. Morgan Godwyn, of the Church of England, published the first treatise directly bearing upon the subject, entitled "The Negro's and Indian's Advocate," which he dedicated to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He had witnessed the cruel treatment of the slaves in the Island of Barbadoes, and he fearlessly uttered his sentiments concerning the oppressors.
About the same time, the devoted Richard Baxter pleaded with fervor and eloquence for the rights of the African. In his "Christian Directory," he used language, which, if employed in this sensitive age and nation, would certainly expose him to the charge of fanaticism. He said that, "those who go
- ↑ Condensed from "Fox's History of Missions in Africa, and Account of the Slave Trade."
