ELIZABETH CITY — Contrary to popular belief, the Quakers were among the most prominent slave owners and traders in Colonial America beginning in the 17th century, including in northeastern North Carolina.
But Dr. J. Timothy Allen told the Museum of the Albemarle’s History for Lunch program Wednesday that the denomination was also among the first to protest slavery while encouraging its adherents to end their ownership of enslaved people, starting in the mid-to-late 1700s until around 1800.
“Were Quakers against slavery? Not really,” said Allen, a professor of humanities at Strayer University whose presentation was entitled, “Early Coastal North Carolina Quakers and Slavery.”
Quakers first started to settle in North Carolina in Snow Camp, in Alamance County, in the mid 1700s and eventually settled into the region that includes Pasquotank and Perquimans counties.
Quakers are known for their industrious work ethic and simple life but they began to expand their business interests from farming into shipbuilding, ferry services, raising cattle and sheep and shingle and brick manufacturing among others.
“They were known to be people with multiple occupations, multiple businesses,” Allen said. “They were ever expanding their industry more and more.”
But Allen said those expanding Quaker-owned industries required “more and more workers.” He said Quakers at the time said out loud to other people, “I can’t compete (economically) with a neighbor who is not a Quaker who has slaves.”
“So, slaves were brought into the Quaker community, not a lot, handfuls at a time,” Allen said. “They helped Quakers to continue to grow, continue to make money, continue to be prosperous. That led to a rise of affluence and power (among Quakers).”
One of the earliest prominent Quakers to settle in the region was Henry Phelps, who arrived around 1665.
“Phelps is not the first Quaker here; he is just the first documented Quaker we found here,” Allen said.
Allen didn’t say during his presentation whether Phelps owned slaves, but asked later, he said he probably had.
“There is a high probability that Henry Phelps was like other farmers of some means who held a few slaves or servants to work on the farm or business,” Allen said.
Some of the early slave owners included merchant Patrick Henley, who owned 11 slaves; Francis Tomes, who owned eight slaves and several servants; and Captain John Hunt, who owned six slaves.
But Allen said slave ownership did not extend to all Quakers in the region at the time.
“While some Quakers had slaves, other Quakers did not,” Allen said. “You can see a little bit of a division in Quakers here in the northeastern part of the state.”
In addition, not all of the people enslaved by the Quakers were of African origin. Some were also Native Americans.
Allen said he’s found documentation that slaves owned by Quakers were treated “fairly well” as compared to slaves owned by some other white settlers.
“I have not found any instances written down, recorded, where a Quaker was condemned for treating slaves badly,” Allen said. “I have often found sources where they were told to treat them well. Initially, Quakers seemed to treat their slaves fairly well.”
Quaker opposition to slavery evolved slowly over many years. Owning slaves was not prohibited by Quaker doctrine but in the mid-1750s a prominent Quaker from New Jersey named John Woolman took up the antislavery cause and traveled widely advocating against the practice.
Woolman, and other Quakers, railed against Quakers who used slaves to establish a lavish lifestyle, which is something at odds with the denomination’s doctrines.
“Woolman talked about that the ownership of slaves began to make whites lazy, lazy in their everyday activities,” Allen said. “‘Bring me my newspaper, bring me my tea,’ that sort of thing. That is what Woolman saw: Quakers in this area were getting lazy in their faith, backing away from simplicity.”
Allen said the ownership of slaves raised the question about Quakers’ beliefs.
“If Quakers felt that slaves were equal, that Quakers were supposed to live a simple lives, not lavishly, wouldn’t that come up in the conversation?” Allen said. “It didn’t.”
Some 20 years later, around 1772 after Woolman’s effort, Perquimans Quaker George Walton had dreams telling him slavery was wrong, Allen said.
“(Walton) begins to take up the crusade against slavery within the local stronghold here in North Carolina,” Allen said. “Walton approached a lot of folks to manumit their slaves.” Manumit means to free from slavery.
Thomas Newby of Perquimans was one of those who freed his slaves in the late 1770s. Other Quakers in the region did the same.
“Most folks said (Newby) had 10 slaves and that is correct,” Allen said.
By around 1800 there was a huge exodus of Quakers in the region to places like Ohio and Indiana.
“The Quaker population in this area plummeted,” Allen said. “So, even Quakers that were sympathetic to slaves and wanted to help them were now gone.”
But those Quakers who stayed helped keep the movement to free slaves alive, and even used their connections in northern states to help enslaved people escape via the Underground Railroad in later years, Allen said.
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