Page:Notices of Negro slavery as connected with Pennsylvania.djvu/39

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negro slavery.
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Countess of Huntingdon, and Charlotte, Queen of England. He also made an appeal in behalf of the negroes to the Queens of France and Portugal.

We cannot, perhaps, better illustrate his diligence and the extent and variety of his engagements than by quoting the words of his intelligent biographer. He remarks:

"It was characteristic if one day he were seen surrounded by the sable children of Africa, imparting advice and deriving information from them concerning the cruelties they had suffered, and the next engaged in composing essays on the subject; addressing letters to friends and strangers, from whom he hoped some aid could be obtained; or, with an innocent boldness worthy of his office, spreading the cause of the poor negro, in the language of warning and persuasion, before statesmen and sovereigns."

These great, and in a degree, effective exertions, were sedulously continued during the whole course of his long life; the two last years of which were devoted to the tuition of negroes, in a free school founded and endowed by the Society of Friends.

A review of the extent and variety of his efforts, the personal exertions which he used, the constancy as well as zeal with which he pursued the investigation and exposure of every branch of the subject, we think entitles us to adopt the short but full eulogium which Clarkson pronounces respecting him. "Anthony Benezet," says he, "may be considered as one of the most zealous, vigilant, and active advocates which the cause of the oppressed