Resource Date: 1783
Number: 34
Record Office: The Library of the Religious Society of Friends
Record Office Location Number:
Description:
Petition from London Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends, presented to Parliament on 16 June 1783
The petition that the Yearly Meeting sent to Parliament is transcribed in both the Yearly Meeting minutes (Volume 17/298 - 307) and Meeting for Sufferings minutes (Volume 36/ 408 - 413). This transcript is from the Yearly Meeting minutes.
This was the first petition made to Parliament and was signed by 273 Quaker members.
Transcription from the Yearly Meeting minutes (Volume 17/298 - 307)
To the Commons of Great Britain, in Parliament assembled.
The Petition of the People called Quakers,
Sheweth -
That your Petitioners met in this their annual assembly, having solemnly considered the state of the enslaved negroes, conceive themselves engaged in religious duty, to lay the suffering situation of that unhappy people before you, as a subject loudly calling for the humane interposition of the Legislature.
Your Petitioners regret, that a nation professing the Christian Faith, should so far counteract the principles of humanity and justice as by a cruel treatment of this oppressed race, to fill their minds with prejudices against...
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