Quakers and the rise of the abolitionist campaign explored in Meeting House talk

MILLBROOK — The interior of the unchanged Nine Partners Quaker Meeting House built in 1780 was the perfect setting for a talk on Quaker influence on the anti-slavery movement of the 18th and 19th centuries offered by the Millbrook Historical Society on Sunday, June 29. The talk was presented as the society’s first event in observance of next year’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Featured speaker was Sarah Gronningsater, professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania and author of “The Rising Generation: Gradual Abolition, Black Legal Culture, and the Making of National Freedom,” published in 2024, by Penn Press.

Basing on exhaustive research that supported the book’s publication, Gronningsater’s talk was titled, “Quakers, Anti-slavery and the American Revolution,” focusing on the critical role of New York’s Quakers, particularly those of the Hudson Valley, in furthering the rise of the abolitionist movement before and after the American Revolution. The “Rising Generation” was a whole generation of freed children of enslaved parents who reached adulthood in time for the Civil War.

An audience of more than 50 settled onto the appropriately firm, solidly hard wooden Quaker benches for Gronningsater’s illustrated talk chronicling the generation that grew to shape the laws that would end the institution of slavery.

“Among the northern colonies, slavery was important to the economy,” Gronningsater explained, estimating a population of 20,000 slaves in early New York, second only to Pennsylvania. The Hudson River Valley was a powerhouse of commerce and influence.

The role of the Quakers, the Religious Society of Friends, has been underestimated. They firmly believed that slavery was wrong, although many Quakers, in reality, owned slaves. New York was not a Quaker colony, although it was a place of religious tolerance, Gronningsater explained.

What has proven to be a boon for researchers, Gronningsater observed, is the meticulous record-keeping of the Quakers who kept voluminous notes and wrote detailed minutes of every meeting.

“They write a lot,” said Gronningsater.

Quakers living within the Oblong territory between Connecticut and New York were activists in the New York City abolitionist movement.

The first published Black poet in the colonies was Jupiter Hammon, living on Long Island and published in 1761. The abolitionist movement had begun in 1760, continuing into the 1770s. Different elements within society were pushing for abolition during the pre-Revolution years.

Quakers began by encouraging their Quaker brothers to free their slaves. As that happened, Quakers next emphasized education of emancipated children of slaves, providing them with school learning.

Following the Revolutionary War, the Constitutional Convention in 1787 was marked by a call to abolish slavery, ultimately unsuccessful.

In 1799, New York passed an Act for the Abolition of Slavery where New York freed the children of slaves, but not the adults.

“Children were born into a different social structure,” Gronningsater said, leading to what could be termed “The Rising Generation.”

In 1827, after a ten-year campaign, New York passed a law to free all enslaved people in the state.

A lively question and answer period followed the talk, evidencing that the questions were emanating from people who knew their history well.

During welcoming remarks, Millbrook Historical Society President Robert McHugh had noted that the series of two meeting house talks are supported by a grant from Dutchess County.

The second meeting house talk of the summer will invite expert Carl Lounsbury of the College of William and Mary and Colonial Williamsburg to speak on the architecture of the Nine Partners Quaker Meeting House. Expert in colonial architecture, Lounsbury will compare the unchanged Nine Partners meeting house, novel architecture in its time, with the architecture of other houses of worship in New York and New England.

The second talk, free and open to the public, is scheduled for Sunday, July 27, at 2 p.m.

For those who want to look in on the Nine Partners Meeting House, McHugh announced that the historic site will be open through the summer until November on the first Sunday of each month, from 12 noon until 4 p.m.