Manumissions

Quakers were among the first white Americans to denounce slavery. Quakers in Germantown, Philadelphia, made the first recorded protest against slavery in 1688, although many Quakers, especially in the southern colonies, enslaved people at this time. William Penn himself was an enslaver during his four years in Pennsylvania (1682-1684 and 1696-1698), though they were later freed.

For much of the 18th century, there was a focus on eliminating slavery within the Quaker community. This was eventually achieved in 1774. Many Quakers freed their own enslaved people, and some bought enslaved people from one another in order to free them. By 1758, opinion amongst Quakers had moved to a point where a systematic program of visits to the remaining Quaker enslavers was agreed, in an endeavour to persuade them to free the enslaved people. Eventually, in 1774, Quakers who were still enslavers were expelled from the Society of Friends.