On this date in 1688, three hundred and thirty-six years ago today, a group of Quakers in Germantown,
On this date in 1688, three hundred and thirty-six years ago today, a group of Quakers in Germantown, Pennsylvania sent a petition to the governing Quaker bodies in Pennsylvania, challenging the morality of owning slaves. At that time slaveholding was a widespread and accepted practice in the colonies, even among Quakers. The petitioners, who were German-Dutch immigrants, used the Golden Rule to argue against slavery, and to argue for universal human rights. No action was taken on the petition and it wasn't until 1780, nearly one hundred years later, that Pennsylvania passed an act for the gradual abolition of slavery, becoming the first American colony to do so. But today the Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery is remembered as the first official protest against the slave trade by a religious body in America.