Anthony Benezet

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Anthony Benezet, or Antoine Bénézet (1713-1784) American educator and abolitionist.

Benezet came from a French family from Saint-Quentin. As a member of the Religious Society of Friends in Philadelphia, he worked to convince his Quaker brethren that slave-owning was not consistent with Christian doctrine. He believed that the British ban on slavery should be extended to the colonies (and later to the independent states in North America)

He was the author of Some Historical Account of Guinea, Its Situation, Produce, and the General Disposition of Its Inhabitants: An Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Slave Trade, Its Nature and Lamentable Effects, which was influential in Britain and the United States during the height of the abolitionism movement.

He taught slave children and help set up the Negro School at Philadelphia.