Anthony Benezet

Some Historical Account of Guinea: Its Situation, Produce and the General Disposition of Its Inhabitants. with an Inquiry into the Rise and Progress ... of a Treatise, by Granville Sharp (Civil War) Anthony Benezet

Some Historical Account of Guinea, from 1771: its situation, produce, and the general disposition of its inhabitants, with an inquiry into the rise and progress of the slave trade, its nature, and lamentable effects. Also a republication of the sentiments of several authors of note on this interesting subject: particularly an extract of a treatise written by Granville Sharpe. Anthony Benezet, or Antoine Bnzet (1713-1784) was an American educator and abolitionist. As a member of the Religious Society of Friends in Philadelphia, he worked to convince his Quaker brethren that slave-owning was not consistent with Christian doctrine. He believed that the British ban on slavery should be extended to the colonies (and later to the independent states in North America). After several years as a failed merchant, in 1739 he took up a placement as a schoolteacher at Germantown. In 1742, he went out to teach at the Friends' English School of Philadelphia. In 1750 he added night classes for black slaves to his schedule. In 1754, he left the Friends' English School to set up his own school, the first public girl's school on the American continent. He also set up the first anti slavery society, Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery, in 1787.