Madison Prudhomme

HIST 1700-424
All Slave Keepers that Keep the Innocent in Bondage, 1737
March 16, 2018

Slavery is one of the most controversial and sad topics, if not the most in American

history. Most people now know that it is wrong and should never happen however, that is not

how it has always been. Slavery started happening in America around 1619 when 20 slaves

arrived in Jamestown. (enotes, certified educator). Slavery became a huge business and way of

life for many plantation and slave owners in America. It was not until January 31, 1865 that

slavery was abolished in the United States for good.

Slavery in America was based on the plantation system where slaves were forced to

spend hours doing work on the plantation in the heat and were also beat, starved and sometimes

killed by their slave owners. (Slavery lecture 1/31/18). Slavery also came to be associated with

race. What started as indentured servants, turned to slavery after white indentured servants

refused to do the hard work. This is when the U.S turned to buying African slaves to work on

plantations.

There were always two sides to beliefs about slavery. There were the people who were

pro slavery, many of which lived in the Southern part of America, and there were those who

were anti-slavery, most of which lived in the North. The plantation owners in the South relied on

slaves for many years as their source of income. There were more abolitionists in the North than

there were in the South because the people in the North did not rely on slavery as heavily as

those in the South. The North used slavery as a reason to hate the South, which sparked a lot of

political drama.
 The document attached is one that was written in 1737 by a Quaker named, Benjamin

Lay. Not all, but most Quakers were known back then to be anti-slavery. Lay was one of them

and he addressed the controversial matter in a letter which was printed for the author. It is

addressed to “All Slave-Keepers”. (Lay, 1737). He is stating basically that slavery is a huge sin,

especially as a Christian. Lay discusses that all of mankind no matter where they are in the world

or what their skin color is, are important. He calls out Christians who are “pretending to lay

claim to the pure and holy Christian religion” (Lay, 1737).

This piece of writing is extremely important to show that not everyone was pro-slavery

back in the 1700’s and 1800’s, as some people think. It shows that there were people, such as

Lay, who spoke out and fought for the abolition of slavery. This document is also an important

part of the ending of slavery because, although it was written many years before slavery was

abolished, Lay had his part in spreading the word to many about just how cruel it is to enslave

innocent people into lifelong field and house work. He made an effort to point out how, as a

Christian or not, slavery is and will always be wrong. The letter was a great statement to the

government and a step closer to the abolition of slavery, which is why it is important to discuss.

There were many people who spoke out about ending slavery other than Lay, however this one

stood out because he addressed the fact that there were slave-owners who also called themselves

holy Christians.

In conclusion, this document has had a lasting impact on history because it shows people

in present day America, just how long it took for many people to fight for an end of slavery. So

many people, such as Lay fought for abolishment of slavery and it finally paid off over 100 years

after this letter was published.

 Citations

Benjamin Lay. ​All Slave Keepers that Keep the Innocent in Bondage .​ Philadelphia: Printed for
the Author, 1737. Franklin Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of
Congress (3–22) ​https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african-american-odyssey/abolition.html

Slavery​ lecture. Maroudas. 1/31/18.

https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-happened-virginia-1619-735925