The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage was the first American abolition society. It was initially formed April 14, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and held four meetings.[1] Seventeen of the 24 men who attended initial meetings of the Society were Quakers. Thomas Paine was among the Society's founders.
It was reorganized in 1784,[2] as the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage,[3] and was incorporated in 1789. At some point after 1785, Benjamin Franklin became the organization's president. The society asked him to bring the matter of slavery to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He petitioned the U.S Congress in 1790.[4]
It became a model for anti-slavery organizations in other states. Commonly referred to as the Pennsylvania Abolition (or Abolitionist) Society, the group's full name was "The Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery, the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, and the Improvement of the Condition of the African Race."
The Pennsylvania Abolition Society apparently still exists, dedicated to the cause of racial justice, and is thus the oldest abolitionist organization in the nation, if not the world. A Pennsylvania State Historical Marker was placed on Philadelphia's Front Street below Chestnut Street on the Society's re-founding in 1984.