Memorial of The Society of Friends, in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, on The African Slave Trade. [caption title]

“It is needless to expatiate upon the scenes of havoc and desolation from which this commerce is supplied…”

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This 1840 anti-slavery petition to Congress by Mid-Atlantic members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) solicited “the interference of Congress in suppressing the African slave trade, carried on under the American flag, and by citizens of the United States.” The memorial was presented to the Senate and House of Representatives, directed to be printed, and by the latter referred to the Committee on Commerce.

Of particular concern to the Quakers were the horrors of the “middle passage” from Africa, including diseases in the crowded holds of the ships and the high mortality rate of slave trading in general. Additionally, they were troubled by American citizens acting as intermediaries in the Caribbean, skirting American anti-slavery laws.

In 1836, Congress instituted a gag rule that automatically tabled all anti-slavery petitions without debate. Supported by pro-slavery congressmen, faced significant opposition from abolitionists. The present Memorial was likely more symbolic than actionable, as its authors likely knew it would be tabled under the gag rule.

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