Granville Sharp, a compliment which was paid and returned, before the two philanthropists became correspondents. Granville Sharp’s copy of one of Benezet’s works contains an autograph note, from which I extract the following:—
“The author of this book, as printed at Philadelphia in 1762, was Mr. Anthony Benezet of that city, descended from a French family which forsook (and lost very considerable property in) France for the sake of their religion; so that the present Mr. B. is obliged to earn his bread in the laborious office of a schoolmaster, and is also unhappily involved in the errors of Quakerism; nevertheless, he has a very large and extensive acquaintance, and is universally respected, not only among the whole body of Quakers (Dr. Fothergill and Dr. Franklin having been his correspondents), but also by all others who knew him. When G. S. was involved in the first law-suit to defend himself against a prosecution for having set a negro slave at liberty in 1767, he accidentally met with a copy of this book on a stall, and, without any knowledge whatever of the author, caused this edition to be printed and published.
“In 1769 G. S., having non-suited his prosecutors, was at liberty to print his representation of The injustice and dangerous tendency of tolerating Slavery, which he had drawn up during the proceedings against him; and it is remarkable that Mr. Benezet reprinted that tract at Philadelphia without knowing that the author had paid the same compliment to Mr. B.’s work in 1767.”[1]
This publication by Benezet, reprinted by Sharp, was entitled, “A Caution to Great Britain and her Colonies, in a short representation of the calamitous state of the Enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions.” This pamphlet contained quotations from the works of celebrated authors, but at the head of these we find a Scotchman, George Wallace, advocate, Sheriff of Ayrshire and Professor of Law in the University of Edinburgh; the quotation is from his System of the Principles of the Laws of Scotland, of which I copy a few sentences:—
“They (the negro slaves) are purchased from their princes who pretend to have a right to dispose of them. Kings, princes, governors, are not proprietors of those who are subject to their authority; they have not a right to make them miserable. On the contrary, their authority is vested in them, that they may, by the just exercise of it, promote the happiness of their people. They have not a right to dispose of their liberty, and to sell them for slaves. Besides, no man has a right to acquire or to purchase them; men and their liberty are not in commercio, they are neither saleable or purchaseable. Every one of those unfortunate men, who are pretended to be slaves, has a right to be declared to be free, for he never lost his liberty; he could not lose it; his Prince had no power to dispose of him; of course, the sale was ipso jure void. This right he carries about with him, and is entitled everywhere to get it declared. As soon, therefore, as he comes into a country in which the judges are not forgetful of their own humanity, it is their duty to remember that he is a man, and to declare him to be free.”
In 1771 was published his most important work:— “Some historical account of Guinea, 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 by Granville Sharp; by Anthony Benezet.”
This publication led to the correspondence between Benezet and Sharp, as to which the biographer of the latter says (vol. i. p. 172):—
“The correspondence with Benezet, if it did not inspire, at least confirmed and enlarged, Mr Sharp’s desire of inquiry respecting the general subject of the African slave trade. It conducted his view to an examination of the source of the evil, and he conceived the vast design of extending his endeavours, and of augmenting and strengthening his means, until he should obtain an entire abolition of the infamous traffic carried on by Great Britain and her colonies. In justice then, and no less in honour, to the memory of the pious but humble Benezet, let it be remembered that, although his zealous labours failed to eradicate from America the evil which he deplored, they contributed to strengthen the arm of the great champion of his favourite cause, and finally to wipe away no small portion of human disgrace.”
Another favourite topic on which Benezet wrote and printed, was Peace among the Nations and the Unlawfulness of War. In 1756 he aided in the formation of “The Friendly Association for regaining and preserving peace with the Indians by pacific measures.” In 1763 he made an appeal to Sir Jeffery Amherst, commander of the army against these natives of the mountains, urging that security be given to them that they would not be robbed and spoiled by British traders, in which case
- ↑ Hoare’s Memoirs of Granville Sharp [born 1735, died 1813], vol. i. p. 145.
