The Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery was founded in 1775 by Quakers and other early abolitionists in Philadelphia, and noted anti-slavery activist Anthony Benezet (1713-1784) was a founding member. Commonly referred to as the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, or PAS, the group’s most famous member was Benjamin Franklin, who joined 12 years after the group’s founding and co-wrote the society’s constitution. The society’s original mission was to litigate on behalf of free African Americans who were illegally enslaved, but it later expanded to help ban the international slave trade and amend the Gradual Abolition Act of 1780. In the late 1780s, under the leadership of Benjamin Franklin, PAS worked in conjunction with the Free African Society to try to improve the lives of free African Americans by building schools, helping people find employment, and placing black children as indentured servants, which was a common practice at the time. By the 1830s, PAS was less influential, especially after the 1833 founding of the American Anti-Slavery Society by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. This 1838 document, read at a January 5th, 1838 meeting of the society, was a response to the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention’s amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution banning free African Americans from voting in the state.

The Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery was founded in 1775 by Quakers and other early abolitionists in Philadelphia, and noted anti-slavery activist Anthony Benezet (1713-1784) was a founding member. Commonly referred to as the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, or PAS, the group’s most famous member was Benjamin Franklin, who joined 12 years after the group’s founding and co-wrote the society’s constitution. The society’s original mission was to litigate on behalf of free African Americans who were illegally enslaved, but it later expanded to help ban the international slave trade and amend the Gradual Abolition Act of 1780. In the late 1780s, under the leadership of Benjamin Franklin, PAS worked in conjunction with the Free African Society to try to improve the lives of free African Americans by building schools, helping people find employment, and placing black children as indentured servants, which was a common practice at the time. By the 1830s, PAS was less influential, especially after the 1833 founding of the American Anti-Slavery Society by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. This 1838 document, read at a January 5th, 1838 meeting of the society, was a response to the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention’s amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution banning free African Americans from voting in the state.