The 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery was the first protest against enslavement of Africans made by a religious body in the Thirteen Colonies. Francis Daniel Pastorius authored the petition; he and three other Quakers living in Germantown, Pennsylvania (now part of Philadelphia), signed it on behalf of the Germantown Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. A highly controversial document, it was forwarded up the hierarchical chain - monthly, quarterly, and yearly meetings - and ultimately ignored.
The petition was based upon the Bible’s Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” urging Quakers to abolish slavery. It advocating that the Quakers form a united front and publicly endeavor to end slavery.
The signers were disturbed that many of Philadelphia’s Quakers were slave owners. In fact, at the time of the protest, just six years after Philadelphia’s founding, about half of British Quakers in the Philadelphia region, including William Penn, held slaves. Although they had come to the new world to escape persecution, they saw no contradiction in owning slaves.
The 1688 petition was set aside and forgotten until 1844 when it was re-discovered and became a focus of the burgeoning abolitionist movement. Some time early in the 20th century it was misplaced and once more re-discovered in March 2005 in the vault at Arch Street Meetinghouse.
1688 Petition Bas-relief portrait of Francis Thones Kunder House, 5109 Daniel Pastorius, c. 1897 Germantown Ave, where petition was written, demolished c.1976
Arch St Meetinghouse
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