Robert Pleasants (1723–1801) was an American educator and abolitionist. He was born in Henrico County, Virginia and became a plantation owner and operator of Robert Pleasants & Co., a consignment tobacco exporting company.[1] Pleasants was a Quaker whose commitment to the abolitionist movement was spurred in large part by the anti-slavery advocate Anthony Benezet. He freed his slaves in 1782 and then hired them as paid laborers and provided for their education.[2] In 1784, he founded the Gravelly Hill School, the first educational institution for free blacks in Virginia.[3]
Pleasants was one of the founders of the Virginia Abolition Society and served as its president in 1790. He submitted numerous petitions to the Virginia state government and the U.S. Congress calling for the end of the slave trade. Many of his letters to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry regarding the legality and morality of slavery still survive.[3]
|
||||||||||||||