Anthony Benezet

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

1 Biography
2 Biography
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[edit] Biography

Anthony Benezet was born in Saint-Quentin, France, on 31 January 1713. He was of Huguenot origin and, owing to the persecutions brought about by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, his family decided to leave France. They stayed there till 1731, then moved again to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the American Continent.

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).

After several years as a failed merchant, in 1739 he took up a placement as a schoolteacher at Germantown. In 1742, he went out to teach at the Friends' English School of Philadelphia. In 1750 he added night classes for black slaves to his schedule.

In 1754, he left the Friends' English School to set up his own school, the first public girl's school on the American continent.

In 1770, he set up the Negro School at Philadelphia.

He also set up the first anti slavery society, Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery, in 1787.

He died on 3 May 1784, and is buried in the Friends' Burial Ground, Philadelphia

[edit] Biography

Observations on the inslaving, importing and purchasing of Negroes. With some advice thereon, extracted from the Epistle of the yearly-meeting of the people called Quakers held at London in the year 1748., 1760
A short account of that part of Africa inhabited by the negroes, 1762
A Caution and Warning to Great Britain and her Colonies, in a short representation of the calamitous state of the enslaved negroes in the British Dominions. Collected from various authors, etc., 1767
Some Historical Account of Guinea ... With an inquiry into the rise and progress of the slave-trade ... Also a republication of the sentiments of several authors of note on this interesting subject; particularly an extract of a treatise by Granville Sharp, 1767