Anthony Benezet

Anthony Benezet (31 January 1713 - 3 May 1784)

Anthony Benezet was born 31 January 1713 in St. Quentin in northern France.

He was a Quaker teacher, writer and abolitionist. His family were Huguenots - French protestants - who had been suffering increasing persecution since the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. In 1715, when Benezet was two years old, they emigrated to London, England where he received an education suitable for the son of a prosperous family of merchants. London proved to be a temporary home. In 1731, when Benezet was seventeen years of age, the family emigrated once more, this time to 115 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia in the British American colony of Pennsylvania. Here Benezet joined the Society of Friends, or Quakers. His early attempts at a career in trade were unsuccessful and, in 1739, he started as schoolteacher at Germantown. Three years later, he moved to a position at the famous Friends' English School of Philadelphia (now the William Penn Charter School) where he was noted both for being a fine teacher, and for his dislike of the severe discipline then common.

In 1750, in addition to his day duties he set up an evening class for slave children, which he ran from his own home. In 1754, he left the Friends' English School to set up one of his own exclusively for girls - the first public girls' school in America. He was dogged by ill health, however, and was not able to maintain an uninterrupted career.

Nevertheless, he continued to teach slave children from home until 1770 when, with the support of the Society of Friends, he set up the Negro School at Philadelphia. He subsequently taught at both of these schools almost until his death.

From at least the 1750s, Benezet became a firm opponent of slavery. His campaign, very much a solitary one at first, took two forms. Firstly, he worked to convince his Quaker brethren in Philadelphia that slave-owning was not consistent with Christian doctrine. Secondly, he wrote and published at his own expense a number of anti-slavery tracts and pamphlets. Of these, 'Some Historical Account of Guinea', written in 1772, was by far the most influential on both sides of the Atlantic. The pamphlet was read and, to a certain extent, imitated by both Granville Sharp (1735–1813) and John Wesley (1703–1791), both of whom corresponded with Benezet and distributed his works in England.

Several years later, Benezet's works were instrumental in persuading Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846) to embark on his abolitionist career, and Benezet's Some Historical Account of Guinea was reprinted several times during the height of the abolition campaign. Benezet, however slavery become a powerful force, either in Britain or America. He died on 3 May 1784 and is buried in the Friends' Burial Ground, Philadelphia. Benezet perhaps qualifies more as an American than a British anti- abolitionist, but his influence on the British abolition campaign cannot be doubted.

Works

• Observations on the inslaving, importing and purchasing of nigroes... (1760)
  
• A short account of that part of Africa inhabited by negroes (1762)
  
• A Caution and Warning to Great Britain and her Colonies... (1767)
  
• Some Historical Account of Guinea... (1771, 2nd ed. 1788)