]
The next class of the forerunners and coadjutors, up to the year 1787,
will consist, first, of the Quakers in America; and then of others, as
they were united to these for the same object.
It may be asked, How the Quakers living there should have become
forerunners and coadjutors in the great work now under our
consideration. I reply, first, that it was an object for many years with
these to do away the Slave Trade as it was carried on in their own
ports. But this trade was conducted in part, both before and after the
independence of America, by our own countrymen. It was, secondly, an
object with these to annihilate slavery in America; and this they have
been instruments in accomplishing to a considerable extent. But any
abolition of slavery within given boundaries must be a blow to the Slave
Trade there. The American Quakers, lastly, living in a land where both
the commerce and slavery existed, were in the way of obtaining a number
of important facts relative to both, which made for their annihilation;
and communicating many of these facts to those in England, who espoused
the same cause, they became fellow-labourers with these in producing the
event in question.
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