negro slavery.
379
there adAdsed such of his brethren as held slaves to teach
them the principles of religion, treat them mildly, and
after certain years of labor set them free.*
Contemporary with George Fox was William Edmund-
son, Avho Avas a worthy minister of this society, and who
also was a fellow traveller with Fox in Barbadoes. f
Being brought before the Governor, on the charge of
teaching the negroes Christianity, and thereby causing
them to rebel and destroy their OAvners, he made an
ansAver Avhich Ave quote entire,—as it strongly shows that
the same kind of clamor against giving negroes instruc-
tion Avhich at present exists upon the same plea, that it
would be inconsistent Avith the safety of their masters,
has existed from the very beginning; and the ansAver
which this worthy man gave to the slaveholders of that
day is admirably adapted to those of the present time.J
In reply to the charge recited abo\Te, he says. " That it
was a good thing to bring them to the knowledge of God
* Further particulars respecting George Fox's advice concerning
slaves, will be found in a series of papers prepared for the " Friend,"
by Mr. Nathan Kite, entitled " Antiquarian Researches among the
early Printers and Publishers of Friends' Books," Yol. XYII.—
Editor.
•f Edmundson twice visited Barbadoes, once in 1671, and once in
1675. It wras during his second visit that the events referred to in
the text occurred.—Gough's History, III., 61. Edmundson's Jour¬
nal, p. 85, Edit, of 1774.—Editor,
J " The earliest instances of such inconsistent persecution was in
the Island of Barbadoes, in the year 1676, and to the honor of that
truly amiable sect of Christians, the Quakers, their charity and
liberality furnished the first opportunity for it by their singular and
probably then unprecedented attempt to impart their own religion to
the negroes."—Stephens' Slavery of West Indies, I., 234.—Editor.
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