Slavery in Philadelphia
To better understand Rush's relationship with slavery, it may help to know more about slavery's presence in his home city of Philadelphia. Rush lived the majority of his life in this city, from his birth in 1746 until his death in 1813. It was here that Rush published many of his abolitionist works, and where he held Grubber in bondage. But what was the institution of slavery like in the city which Rush called home?
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Slavery in Philadelphia flourished largely thanks to the city's port. Since 1684, the port of Philadelphia served as an important destination for the African slave trade. Many slaves, coming from both West Africa and the Caribbean, were sold there. [1]
Unlike their Southern counterparts, who often worked on large plantations, slaves in Philadelphia often worked as household servants or laborers, with most Philadelphian slaveowners keeping only one or two slaves. [2] However, like in many Northern cities, slaves made up a substantial part of Philadelphia's population.In the 1710s, slaves made up one-sixth of the city's population. By the 1740s, 15% of Philadelphian laborers were enslaved persons. At some point in the 1760s, slavery in Philadelphia reached its peak with a total of 1,400 slaves living in the city. However, after a duty, or tax, on imported slaves was passed in 1773, these numbers began to decrease. [3]
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The American Revolution was partially responsible for the fall of slavery in Philadelphia. As Enlightenment thinking began to take over American intellectual scholarship, some thinkers began to question whether slavery could be justified under Enlightenment ideas of liberty and equality. It was this type of thinking that led Benjamin Rush and other individuals to form the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, the United States' first abolition society, in 1775. [4] This could be part of the reason why the duty on imported slaves was passed in 1773 and why the Gradual Abolition Act was passed in 1780. [5] Enticement of slaves by British soldiers during the Revolutionary War also decreased the slave population in Philadelphia; according to city residents, the main reason slavery decreased in Philadelphia by 25% between 1775 and 1780 was because British soldiers had encouraged slaves to run away, promising them freedom if they joined the fight against white colonists. [6]
Another reason for slavery's decline in Philadelphia can be attributed to the city's Quaker population. Though not all Quakers were abolitionists, many of the more prominent abolitionists of this time period, including Rush's mentor Anthony Benezet, were Quakers. Even George Fox, founder of Quakerism, questioned the morality of slavery. In 1776, the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Quakers decided to ban its members from owning slaves, threatening to ban anyone who owned a slave from the Society of Friends. [7]
Finally, In 1780, Pennsylvania passed a Gradual Abolition Act. According to the law, children born to slave mothers after 1780 would be considered free persons, though they would have to serve an apprenticeship before they could leave their mothers' masters. For men, this apprenticeship lasted twenty-eight years; women served a little less. Despite the passage of the law, Philadelphia faced a fugitive slave crisis, as approximately 50-75% of young enslaved men living in Philadelphia ran away from their masters in the 1780s. [8] The Gradual Abolition Act still allowed slaveholders from other states to bring their slaves into Pennsylvania and keep them there for up to six months, though many slaveholders got around this law by sending their slaves to other states for short periods of time every six years. [9] Despite attempts to get around the Gradual Abolition Act, by 1810, only two slaves remained in the city of Philadelphia. [10]