At this meeting
also all the members of it were cautioned and advised against acting as
executors or administrators to estates, where slaves were bequeathed, or
likely to be detained in bondage.
[Footnote A: This alludes to the term of servitude for white persons in
these provinces.]
In the year 1776, the same yearly meeting carried the matter still
further. It was enacted, That the owners of slaves, who refused to
execute proper instruments for giving them their freedom, were to be
disowned likewise.
In 1778 it was enacted by the same meeting, that the children of those
who had been set free by members, should be tenderly advised, and have a
suitable education given them.
It is not necessary to proceed further on this subject. It may be
sufficient to say, that from this time the minutes of the yearly meeting
for Pennsylvania and the Jerseys exhibit proofs of an almost incessant
attention, year after year[B], to the means not only of wiping away the
stain of slavery from their religious community, but of promoting the
happiness of those restored to freedom, and of their posterity also; and
as the yearly meeting of Pennsylvania and the Jerseys set this bright
example, so those of New England, New York, Maryland, Virginia, and of
the Carolinas and Georgia, in process of time followed it.
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