iour on the occasion showed the gratitude and affection they
considered to be due to him as their own private benefactor, as well as the
benefactor of their whole race.

Such, then, were the labours of the Quakers, in America, of individuals,
from 1718 to 1784, and of the body at large, from 1696 to 1787, in this
great cause of humanity and religion. Nor were the effects produced from
these otherwise than corresponding with what might have been expected from
such an union of exertion in such a cause; for both the evils, that is, the
evil of buying and selling, and the evil of using, slaves, ceased at length
with the members of this benevolent Society. The leaving off all concern
with the Slave-trade took place first. The abolition of slavery, though it
followed, was not so speedily accomplished; for, besides the loss of
property, when slaves were manumitted without any pecuniary consideration
in return, their owners had to struggle, in making them free, against the
laws and customs of the times. In Pennsylvania, where the law in this
respect was the most favourable, the parties wishing to give freedom to a
slave were obliged to enter into a bond for the payment of thirty pounds
currency, in case the said slave should become chargeable for maintenance.
In New Jersey the terms were far less favourable, as the estate of the
owner remained liable to the consequences of misconduct in the slave, or
even in his posterity. In the southern parts of America manumission was not
permitted but on terms amounting nearly to a prohibition. But,
notwithstanding these difficulties, the Quakers could not be deterred, as
they became convinced of the unlawfulness of holding men in bondage, from
doing that which they believed to be right. Many liberated their slaves,
whatever the consequences were; and some gave the most splendid example in
doing it, not only by consenting, as others did, thus to give up their
property, and to incur the penalties of manumission, but by calculating and
giving what was due to them, over and above their food and clothing, for
wages[A] from the beginning of their slavery to the day when their
liberation commenced. Thus manumission went on, some sacrificing more, and
others less; some granting it sooner, and others later; till, in the year
1787[B], there was not a slave in the possession of an acknowledged Quaker.

[Footnote A: One of the brightest instances was that afforded by Warner
Mifflin. He gave uncondition