American Christian Heritage: John Hepburn and the Quaker Legacy of Abolition

        As discussions of race, politics, and the legacy of slavery – the “original sin” of American history – continue to drive much of the cultural dialogue of the 2020s, it is crucial to remember that the institution was not universally agreed to, and many dissented before the outbreak of the Civil War. Frequently, members of the church led such expressions of abolitionism. One denomination, however, was further ahead than others: Quakers were roughly 100 years ahead of other mainline Christian denominations in their rejection of slavery. The first general written protest of slavery was written by Quakers from Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1688, and the first anti-slavery society in the world – the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, founded in 1775 – was dominated by a Quaker majority. [1] Such a position was enshrined in 1758 with the ejection of slaveowners from positions of leadership at the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, after which slaveholding rapidly declined in the Quaker community. Though many Quakers participated actively in the slave trade before 1758, there were also a number of key abolitionists that made outspoken stands ahead of this date. [2]

        One of the best examples of Quaker abolitionist thought in the first half of the eighteenth century was published by John Hepburn in 1715, entitled An American Defence of the Christian Golden Rule. A former slave himself, Hepburn gives a solid rejection of the institution. He argues at length that, through their possession of slaves, slaveowners have willfully broken the Ten Commandments. Lying, covetousness, murder, adultery, disrespect of the Lord – all of these were common practice in plantations according to Hepburn. More importantly, he asserts that the slaveowners also forced their slaves to break all Ten Commandments as well. Hepburn also chronicles the hardships suffered by slaves and the brutal punishments administered to them by their masters, boldly declaring “those men who use such Cruelty are not only void of the Fear of God, but are even destitute of humane Civility, and Pity and Mercy.” [3] Hepburn also discusses earlier Quaker writers against abolition; he asserts that the founder of the movement, George Fox, wrote against slavery (though Fox’s views on slavery were subtle and poorly-defined, there was a strain of discomfort with slavery found in his works that later Quakers expanded upon) but his “Christian Admonition was rejected.” [4]

        Though not explicit, Hepburn was also greatly indebted to the philosophy of the controversial George Keith – Keith’s Exhortation and Caution of 1693 is another early Quaker abolitionist text, published shortly before Keith was ejected from the Quaker community in 1694. While elements of Keith’s arguments may be found throughout Hepburn, it is most directly comparable in Hepburn’s castigation of Quakers who still kept slaves. Here, he states that the Quaker denomination is the most theologically attuned to abolitionism, [5] and attempts to reconcile this point. Hepburn does so largely through the assertion (commonly held by followers of Keith) [6] that Quakers who have held positions of power – a term he refers to as “magistracy” – have been corrupted by it, leading to their cognitive dissonance on the issue of slavery. [7] Essentially, this argument is a lengthier assertion that “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” While hardly a sound rejection that would pass muster in a current ex post facto discussion of aligning or combatting slavery, it is clear that Hepburn was greatly grieved that Quakers – the “purest” denomination ideologically – could still be susceptible to the practice. Using the language of Keith, it is evident through the reading of An American Defence that Hepburn wished to at least bring Quakers to a place of unity on the issue, which could then be used to expand to other Christian denominations.

        Hepburn was not the first Quaker abolitionist, nor would he be the last. The famous abolitionist Benjamin Lay would court controversy in 1737 with his All Slave-Keepers That Keep the Innocent in Bondage, Apostates. This work, coupled by his infamously theatrical “bladder of blood” speech in 1738 would see him ostracized from the Quaker community as was Keith in the 1690s. In this speech, Hepburn thrust a sword through a bladder filled with a red juice which had been placed inside a Bible, declaring "It would be as justifiable in the sight of the Almighty...if you should thrust a sword through their hearts as I do through this book." [8] While still divided the issue, the trend in the Quaker community continued to lean more generally in the direction of abolitionism. While the works of Fox, the Germantown Quakers, or Keith would influence later generations of abolitionist writers, works such as Hepburn’s or Lay’s sought rapid, immediate change and denounced as “apostates” those who profited from the institution. Though the denomination has lost its clout and cultural relevance in the intervening centuries, Quakers rightly deserve a position of honor in the discussion of emergent abolitionist thought in America.

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[1] Beverly C. Tomek, Slavery and Abolition in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Historical Society, 2012), 40-41. ProQuest Ebook Central.

[2] Ibid., 26.

[3] John Hepburn, The American Defence of the Christian Golden Rule (New York, 1715), 5. Early American Imprints.

[4] Ibid., [iii].

[5] Ibid., 14-15.

[6] Henry J. Cadbury, “John Hepburn and His Book Against Slavery, 1715,” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 59, no. 1 (April 1949), 111. https://www.americanantiquarian.org/aasproceedings1949.

[7] Hepburn, 17-19.

[8] Roberts Vaux, ed., Memoirs of the Lives of Benjamin Lay and Ralph Sandiford (Philadelphia, 1815), 26-27. Sabin Americana.