Benezet on the web
A Quick Guide to Materials (last updated, Feb. 2010)
Arranged somewhat in order of importance
Formerly hosted at benezet.org
Wikipedia
- With a link to the Anthony Benezet biography and bibliography at Brycchan Carey’s web collection on Slavery, Emancipation, and Abolition.
Anthony Benezet: True Champion of the Slave [pdf 1.34 Mb]
- Irv Brendlinger’s overview for the Wesleyan Theological Journal 32.1 (2007) 107-128. Includes the following nugget: “In 1743 he moved from Philadelphia to Germantown (now in the NW section of Philadelphia). At this time he became a trustee of the Charity School, whose purpose it was to educate poor children without payment. The Charity School later became the College of Pennsylvania, and eventually the University of Pennsylvania” (110).
Some Historical Account of Guinea, Its Situation, Produce, and the General Disposition of Its Inhabitants. An Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Slave Trade, Its Nature and Lamentable Effects
- Benezet’s Masterpiece as Project Gutenberg eText
Haverford College Papers of Anthony Benezet
- Although links to images have been broken, a description remains of a four-page letter (7 mo. 1783, Philadelphia) to George Dillwyn of Burlington, NJ. In this letter, Benezet expresses his interest in the situation of the Indians and his desire to do what he can to remove mistaken prejudices against them.
Cornell University Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection Author Index “B”
Page by page images of the following pamphlets:
- Short account of that part of Africa, inhabited by the Negroes : with respect to the fertility of the country; the good disposition of many of the natives, and the manner by which the slave trade is carried on, A (1762).
- Caution to Great Britain and her colonies : in a short representation of the calamitous state of the enslaved Negroes in the British dominions (1784) [distributed by London Quakers — see page 23 of Views below].
- Views of American slavery, taken a century ago (1858) [with concise biography of Benezet and reprints of “Caution and Warning to Great Britain” and “A Short Account.” The style of this anonymous presentation reminds me of Wilson Armistead’s 1859 edition of “Anthony Benezet.”]
- Some historical account of Guinea : its situation, produce, and the general disposition of its inhabitants : with an inquiry into the rise and progress of the slave trade, its nature, and lamentable effects (1788).
Thoughts on the Nature of War: A Thanksgiving Sermon (1759) [pdf 107 Kb]
- PDF edition transcribed from micro fiche: Early American Imprints 1639-1800 Edited by the American Antiquarian Society, Evans No. 10505.
Maurice Jackson: The Social and Intellectual Origins of Anthony Benezet’s Antislavery Radicalism [pdf 1.7 Mb]
- With a fine overview of the life, in Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 66.5 (1999 Supplemental), 86-112.
Woodson’s Bio of Benezet
- Journal of Negro History 2 (January 1917): 37-50 [heavily sourced to Vaux and Clarkson].
Woodson: The Education Of The Negro Prior To 1861, Chapter 3, Education as a Right of Man
- Benezet is named several times in this survey of “colonial” education, including a cautionary recollection about his support for a scheme to establish a black colony “West of the Alleghanies.”
- See also Chapter Two.
DuBois: Philadelphia Negro, Chapter 8
- Begins with an account of Quaker efforts to provide education to black students, “probably” led by Benezet.
American Abolitionism website project
- Biographical note with bibliography (IUPUI).
African American Church History Timeline
Three dates mention Benezet, beginning with:
- 1750: Anthony Benezet, Friends (Quaker) school teacher in Philadelphia, began teaching free blacks and slaves in his home at night. This action was suspended during the American Revolutinonary War, but recreated once the war was over. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones were graduates of Benezet’s school.
Lydia Maria Child: An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans, Chapter 8, PREJUDICES AGAINST PEOPLE OF COLOR, AND OUR DUTIES IN RELATION TO THIS SUBJECT
- “The famous Anthony Benezet, a Quaker in Philadelphia, has left us a noble example of what may be done for conscience’ sake. . . .”
Vaux Family Papers
- Benezet’s first biographer, Roberts Vaux, obtained three letters by Benezet now part of the Vaux Family Papers.
James Forten Bio
- “Forten was the son of Thomas and Sarah Forten and the grandson of slaves. He was raised in Philadelphia and educated in Anthony Benezet’s Quaker school for colored children.”
Benezet in Print
Irv A. Brendlinger’s edition of Benezet’s antislavery writings: To be Silent would be Criminal (Lanham: Scarecrow, 2006)
- A welcome collection of letters and tracts with introductory biography. Brendlinger arrives at Benezet through scholarship on John Wesley and the British antislavery movement.
Life of Anthony Benezet by Anthony Benezet (Author), William Armistead (Editor), Legacy Reprint Series. Kessinger, 2007.
- Reprint of Armistead’s 1859 London edition of Anthony Benezet: From the Original Memoir, Revised, with Additions. Brookes describes this book as not much different from the 1817 memoir by Roberts Vaux: “only a few additional letters, the record of a dream by Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia — most of all, transposed paragraphs, and least of all, new light on the character and works of Anthony Benezet.”
Views of American Slavery: Taken a Century Ago.
- Google Books presentation of Kessinger reprint of 1858 publication. See also the Cornell Anti-Slavery collection above for link to historical edition.
Some Historical Account Of Guinea: Its Situation, Produce And The General Disposition Of Its Inhabitants.
- Google Books presentation of Benezet’s classic work. See also above links to online editions by the Cornell Anti-Slavery collection and Project Gutenberg.
A Caution to Great Britain and her colonies: in a short representation of the calamitous state of the enslaved Negroes in the British dominions. Cornell University Library Digital Collections.
- Reprint from Cornell Anti-Slavery Collection, see above.
A Short account of that part of Africa . . .
- Reprint from Cornell Anti-Slavery Collection, see above.
Benezet Out of Print
George S. Brookes. Friend Anthony Benezet. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1937. Published in partnership with Oxford University Press. Scarce / Rare.
- Biography, bibliography, and letters.
Roberts Vaux. Memoirs of the Life of Anthony Benezet. Philadelphia: James P. Parke (Merritt, Printer), 1817. 136 pages with un-numbered “List of Authorities.”
- With “Introductory Remarks” expressing the author’s disappointment that he can ofer a “mere sketch” of the life of Anthony Benezet, because “no traces are discernible of the mass of important and interesting documents, which must have accumulated during more than fifty of the last years of his life.” According to Brookes (1937 above), the Armistead edition of the Memoirs (1859) is only slightly rearranged and supplemented.
Notable Discussions
Peter Silver: Our Savage Neighbors (Google Books)
- In his 2008 Bancroft Prize-winning book, Our Savage Neighbors: How Indian War Transformed Early America (New York: W.W. Norton), historian Peter Rhoads Silver discusses Benezet’s attempted contribution toward tolerance in Indian affairs (see pp. 294-297).
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