And in such families where there are young ones, or
others of suitable age, that they excite the masters, or those who
have them, to give them sufficient instruction and learning, in order
to qualify them for the enjoyment of liberty intended, and that they
may be instructed by themselves, or placed out to such masters and
mistresses who will be careful of their religious education, to serve
for such time, and no longer, as is prescribed by law and custom, for
white people."--_A Brief Statement of the Rise and Progress of the
Testimony of the Religious Society of Friends against Slavery and the
Slave Trade_. Published by direction of the Yearly Meeting, held in
Philadelphia, in the Fourth Month, 1843, p. 38.
FROM THE MINUTES OF THE YEARLY MEETING OF THE FRIENDS OF PHILADELPHIA
AND NEW JERSEY, 1779
"A tender Christian sympathy appears to be awakened in the minds of
many who are not in religious profession with us, who have seriously
considered the oppressions and disadvantages under which those people
have long laboured; and whether a pious care extended to their
offspring is not justly due from us to them, is a consideration worthy
of our serious and deep attention; or if this obligation did not
weightily lay upon us, can benevolent minds be directed to any object
more worthy of their liberality and encouragement, than that of laving
a foundation in the rising generation for their becoming good and
useful men? remembering what was formerly enjoined, 'If thy brethren
be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee, then thou shalt relieve
him; yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live
with thee.
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