page_title: 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery
hierarchical_section_title: 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery
caption_attribution_description: English: The two sides of the The 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery after conservation in 2007. It was written in iron gall ink and has substantially faded. The document was the first public protest against the institution of slavery, and represents the first written public declaration of universal human rights. The original document is 9" x 14". The Signatories are Francis Daniel Pastorius, Garret Hendericks, Derick op den Graeff and Abraham op den Graeff
context_page_description: The 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery was the first protest against African-American slavery made by a religious body in the English colonies. Francis Daniel Pastorius authored the petition; he and three other Quakers living in Germantown, Pennsylvania signed it on behalf of the Germantown Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Clearly a highly controversial document, Friends forwarded it up the hierarchical chain of their administrative structure--monthly, quarterly, and yearly meetings--without either approving or rejecting it. The petition effectively disappeared for 150 years into Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's capacious archives; but upon rediscovery in 1844 by Philadelphia antiquarian Nathan Kite, latter-day abolitionists published it in 1844 in The Friend, in support of their antislavery agitation.
context_section_description: The 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery was the first protest against African-American slavery made by a religious body in the English 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. Clearly a highly controversial document, Friends forwarded it up the hierarchical chain of their administrative structure--monthly, quarterly, and yearly meetings--without either approving or rejecting it. The petition effectively disappeared for 150 years into Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's capacious archives; but upon rediscovery in 1844 by Philadelphia antiquarian Nathan Kite, latter-day abolitionists published it in 1844 in The Friend, (Vol. XVII, No. 16.) in support of their antislavery agitation.
caption: The petition was the first American public document to protest slavery. It was also one of the first written public declarations of universal human rights.
exif: {}