This was the last opportunity that he had of interesting
himself in behalf of this injured people for soon afterwards he was
seized with the small-pox at the house of a friend in the city of York,
where he died.
The next person belonging to the society of the Quakers, who laboured in
behalf of the oppressed Africans, was Anthony Benezet. He was born
before, and he lived after, John Woolman; of course he was contemporary
with him. I place him after John Woolman, because he was not so much
known as a labourer, till two or three years after the other had begin
to move in the same cause.
Anthony Benezet was born at St. Quintin, in Picardy, of a respectable
family, in the year 1713. His father was one of the many Protestants
who, in consequence of the persecutions which followed the revocation of
the edict of Nantz, sought an asylum in foreign countries. After a short
stay in Holland, he settled, with his wife and children, in London, in
1715.
Anthony Benezet having received from his father a liberal education,
served an apprenticeship in an eminent mercantile house in London. In
1731, however, he removed with his family to Philadelphia, where he
joined in profession with the Quakers.
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