Quakers, Antislavery, and the American Revolution: A Talk by Sarah Gronningsater
New York’s Quakers are important figures in the antislavery history of New York Colony and New York State. At times over-shadowed by their more famous brethren in Pennsylvania, New York’s Quakers have not always been featured in the history of 18th-century abolitionism as much as they should be, especially given their vital important to the end of heritable bondage in the northern state with the highest number of slaves on the eve of the American Revolution. This talk will explore the rise and nature of Quaker antislavery in the colonial era, with an attention to the grassroots stories of real Quakers and enslaved people in the Hudson Valley, in particular. Featuring unpublished primary sources and an emphasis on how Quakers and enslaved New Yorkers put continual pressure on proslavery forces in New York, it will explain why New York began to slowly abolish slavery how it did and when it did in the wake of the Revolution.
