George Fox and Slavery Kenneth L. Carroll* Quakerism made its way to the West Indies in 1655 and to the North American mainland in 1656 (when Elizabeth Harris labored in Maryland and Mary Fisher and Anna Austin arrived in New England). There were more than seventy visits by "Publishers ofTruth," as the early ministering Friends were often called, to these areas before the 1671 arrival ofGeorge Fox and his large group oftraveling Friends in the West Indies. Quakerism was well established here long before Fox's American labors began, for great numbers of people had already been convinced, including many slaveholders. These pre-1671 Quaker missionaries, so far as is known, remained silent on the subject of slavery. Fox himselfknew quite early that some American Friends owned slaves, both Blacks and Indians. In 1657 he sent out an epistle entitled "To Friends beyond Sea thathave Blacks and Indian Slaves," calling upon such Quakers to be merciful in their treatment ofthose they held in bondage. In this letter he emphasized the equality ofall mankind in the eyes ofGod as well as the freedom which comes through divine power.1 Probably, at this time, Fox thought of American slavery as not too different from the situation of indentured servants in England. Once he came face to face with West Indian slavery as he saw it in Barbados (and later in Jamaica), Fox's deeper awareness of what was involved (both for the slave and the slaveholder) drove him further than simply calling for mercy. After a long and difficult journey from England Fox finally arrived in Barbados on October 3, 1 67 1—quite weak from the illness which had plagued him most ofthe trip. Several days later he was carried to the home of Thomas Rous, one ofthe early Quaker converts on the island, where he remained however, too weak to travel around Barbados. According to his Journal it was not until late October, some weeks after his arrival, that he appeared in his first meeting at Rous's house. On the following day (the 28th) he appointed a women's meeting there, followed (onNovember 2) by a men's meeting also at Rous's home.2 In the three and a halfweeks he had lain ill and undergone his long recovery, Fox had learned enough about American slavery—through observation and conversation—to speak about it both at the women's and men's meetings. Although Fox's Journal says that his message to the men's meeting was on November 2, the Friends House Library manuscript copy of this talk *Kenneth L. Carroll, current president of Friends Historical Association and former president ofthe Friends Historical Society (U.K.), has published widely on both American and British seventeenth-century Quakerism. George Fox and Slavery17 (recorded by John Hall) bears no date.3 The same is true of the printed version published later in Fox's Gospel-Family Order.* There is, however, an American copy of this message which suggests that it was delivered a bit earlier.5 Whatever the date, this address contains his fullest discussion of the duty of Quakers to their slaves: do not slight them, to wit, the Ethiopians, the Blacks now, neither any Man or Woman upon the Face ofthe Earth, in that Christ dyed for all, both Turks, Barbarians, Tartarians, and Ethiopians; he died for Tawn[i]es and for the Blacks as well as for you that are called whites, . . . And therefore now you should preach Christ to your Ethiopians that are in your Families, that so they may be free Men indeed, and be tender ofand to them, and walk in Love, that ye may answerthat ofGod in their Hearts, being (as the Scripture affirms) all ofone Blood & of one Mold, to dwell upon the Face ofthe Earth; for Christ (I say) shed his Blood for them, as well as for you, and tasted Death forthem, as well as for you, and hath appeared unto them, as well as he hath enlightened you, and his Grace hath appeared unto them, as well as it hath appearedto you, and he is a Propitiation for their Sins, as well as for yours; for he is the...