Mellon Scholars Summer Program – Subject Guides

Tracing Contemporary Abolitionist Thought to Colonial and Early America

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Overview:

In her 2021 book Becoming Abolitionists, Derecka Purnell writes, “if abolitionists had waited to convince every single person that freedom was worth the pursuit, Black people might still be on plantations.” Tracing Contemporary Abolitionist Thought to Colonial and Early America engages with this paradigm, examining the ideological link between today’s police and prison abolitionists and early abolitionists in America. This subject guide places Philadelphia in the center of early abolitionist thought, beginning with accounts of William Penn’s first doctrines on slavery, punishment, and surveillance. It examines the formation of the police system in Philadelphia, early attempts at prison reform, and documentation of carceral racial disparities across the centuries.

This subject guide examines the work of prominent abolitionist actors of both African and European descent. Notable figures such as Dr. Benjamin Rush and Dr. Benjamin Franklin appear in organizations dedicated to both abolition of slavery and prison reform, suggesting an early link between the two agendas. This guide places a spotlight on 18th and 19th-century abolitionist thought, encouraging us to ask whether contemporary abolitionist thought can be traced back to early prison reform or antislavery ideology, or both.

About the Author:

Yende Mangum is a rising senior at Princeton University studying African American Studies and Music. His research focuses on racial identity and Black artistry.

Keywords

Contributors:

  • Jones, Absalom, 1746-1818
  • Allen, Richard, 1760-1831
  • Du Bois, W. E. B. 1868-1963
  • La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, François-Alexandre-Frédéric, duc de, 1747-1827
  • Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery
  • Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons

Subject Headings:

  • African Americans — Pennsylvania — Philadelphia
  • Slavery — United States — Controversial literature
  • African American History
  • Correctional institutions — Pennsylvania — Philadelphia
  • Walnut Street Prison (Philadelphia, Pa.)
  • African Methodist Episcopal Church (Philadelphia, Pa.) — Buildings
  • Prisons — Pennsylvania — Philadelphia
  • Streets — Pennsylvania — Philadelphia
  • Criminal statistics — Pennsylvania
  • Slavery — Law and legislation — United States
  • Antislavery movements — United States
  • Slavery — Pennsylvania

Access Terms:

  • Anti-slavery literature — United States
  • Constitutions
  • Narratives
  • Addresses
  • Posters
  • Dictionaries
Annotated Bibliography

Resources at LCP:

Absalom Jones, Richard Allen, and Matthew Clarkson, A narrative of the proceedings of the black people, during the late awful calamity in Philadelphia, in the year 1793: and a refutation of some censures, thrown upon them in some late publications (Philadelphia, 1794).

In addition to a response to Matthew Carey’s allegations of extortion among Black volunteers during the yellow fever epidemic, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones’s Narrative contains “An Address to those who keep Slaves, and approve the practice.” In this essay, Allen and Jones appeal to the spirituality, morality, and humanity of slaveholders in an attempt to convince the American people to rid themselves of the institution of slavery.

W. E. B. Du Bois and Isabel Eaton, The Philadelphia Negro (Philadelphia, 1899).

Around the turn of the 20th century, the University of Pennsylvania commissioned W. E. B. Du Bois to conduct a sociological study of Black Philadelphians. In this volume, Du Bois identifies and documents problems plaguing Black Philadelphians in every facet of life, tracing these problems back to legislation from the time of William Penn’s arrival in America.

François-Alexandre-Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Des prisons de Philadelphie (Philadelphia, 1796).

François-Alexandre-Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt was a French social reformer and educator who assumed the title of Duke after the assassination of his cousin during the French Revolution. His 1796 account of the prison systems in Philadelphia questions the morality of the cruel treatment of Black prisoners. Additionally, he documents the disproportionate number of Black people convicted of crimes relative to their count in Philadelphia’s total population, yet he does not comment on this statistic.

W. Birch & Son, Goal, in Walnut Street Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1799). Engraving.

This engraving depicts the grand Walnut Street Prison around the turn of the 19th century. In the foreground is the first iteration of the Mother Bethel A. M. E. Church, which is being wheeled by a team of horses. The proximity of these sites of antislavery abolition and early prison reform speaks to Philadelphia’s centrality with respect to abolition and reformist thought.

Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, A statistical view of the operation of the penal code of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1817).

The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons published this document in 1817, tabulating the crimes and demographics of criminals from 1779 to 1816. At the very end of this document, the Society remarks that of the 407 inmates on July 19th 1816, 176 were Black, representing 43% of the penitentiary population. For reference, the general population of Philadelphia was only 8% Black at the time.

Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Constitution and act of incorporation of the Pennsylvania Society, for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery (Philadelphia, 1800).

The Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage was founded in 1775 and revitalized in 1787. Prominent members included Dr. Benjamin Franklin (president) and Dr. Benjamin Rush (secretary). This document contains the constitution and list of members of the 1787 society in addition to Pennsylvania’s 1780 “Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery.”

Howard O. Sprogle, The Philadelphia Police, Past and Present (Philadelphia, 1887).

This volume is a chronology of the Philadelphia Police System from its colonial origins through its development in the 19th century. Among William Penn’s first acts upon arrival in North America were the appointments of sheriffs and officers. Though the night watch and constable system dates back to 1700, the official formation of the police force occurred in response to early 19th-century race riots.

Local Resources:

Slave Hunters Poster (Massachusetts, 1851). Mother Bethel Collection.

This poster notifies the general public of Massachusetts of the presence of three slave hunters (or kidnappers) in Boston looking to capture Black citizens. In an application of tactics used by the many runaway slave ads of the time, this “proclamation” features physical descriptions of the kidnappers in addition to their names and aliases.

Race at Eastern State Penitentiary (Philadelphia, 2021). Eastern State Penitentiary.

This placard documents the history of Black individuals at Eastern State Penitentiary, the first prison in the world to implement solitary confinement. Eastern State was a segregated institution until the early 1960s, and its first inmate in 1829 was Black (Charles Williams). Many of its early inmates were slaves, and seven percent of its Black prisoners would die before completing their sentences.

Race and U.S. Prisons Today (Philadelphia, 2021). Eastern State Penitentiary.

This placard uses 2020 United States Department of Justice data to depict the incarceration rate of Americans segmented by race and gender. Black men represent the most incarcerated group, with 4,347 incarcerated individuals per 100,000, and white women represent the least incarcerated group, with 91 incarcerated individuals per 100,000.

Reference Books:

Miller, Randall M., and John David Smith. Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery. Praeger, 1997.

The first entry in this Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery is that of Abolition. This entry teases out the distinction between gradualism and immediatist abolitionism, the former of which was supported by many white abolitionists. Immediatist abolitionism was supported by Black individuals, many of whom were formerly enslaved and knew firsthand the horrors of slavery. Immediatists and gradualists tended to disagree on whether former slaveholders should be repaid for loss of property.

Teeters, Negley K., and Albert G. Fraser. They Were in Prison: A History of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, 1787-1937, Formerly the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons. The John C. Winston Company, 1937.

The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons (now known as the Pennsylvania Prison Society) was established in 1787 to reform the inhumane conditions in American prisons. Prominent founding members include Dr. Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Benjamin Rush. In contrast to the abolitionist platform of one of Franklin and Rush’s other organizations, the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, the Pennsylvania Prison Society’s platform of prison reform was supported by public opinion

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