So early as in 1661, a law was made there prohibiting
members of this society from coming on shore. Negroes were put in irons
for being present at their meetings, and they themselves were fined
also. At length, in 1677, another act was passed, laying a heavy penalty
on every master of a vessel who should even bring a Quaker to the
island. In Antigua and Bermudas similar proceedings took place, so that
the Quakers were in time expelled from this part of the world. By these
means a valuable body of men were lost to the community in these
islands, whose example might have been highly useful; and the poor
slave, who saw nothing but misery in his temporal prospects, was
deprived of the only balm which could have soothed his sorrow--the
comfort of religion.
But to return to the continent of America. Though the treatment which
the Quakers adopted there towards those Africans who fell into their
hands, was so highly commendable, it did not prevent individuals among
them from becoming uneasy about holding them in slavery at all. Some of
these bore their private testimony against it from the beginning as a
wrong practice, and in process of time brought it before the notice of
their brethren as a religious body.
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