Anthony Benezet
| Anthony Benezet | |
|---|---|
Benezet instructing colored children
Illustration in a book from 1850 |
|
| Born |
Antoine Bénézet January 31, 1713 Saint-Quentin, Aisne |
| Died | May 3, 1784 (aged 81) Philadelphia |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | teacher |
| Known for | Abolition |
Anthony Benezet, born Antoine Bénézet (January 31, 1713 – May 3, 1784), was a French-born American abolitionist and educator who was active in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of the early American abolitionists, Benezet founded one of the world's first anti-slavery societies, the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage (after his death it was revived as the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery); the first public school for girls in North America; and the Negro School at Philadelphia, which operated into the nineteenth century.
Antoine Bénézet was born in Saint-Quentin, France, on 31 January 1713, to a family of Protestants, known in France as Huguenots. Because Protestants had been persecuted and suffered violent attacks since the Crown's revocation in 1685 of the Edict of Nantes, which had provided religious tolerance, his family, like many others, decided to leave France. They moved first to Rotterdam, Netherlands; then briefly to Greenwich before settling in London, England, where there was a sizeable Huguenot refugee community. In 1727 Benezet joined the Religious Society of Friends (also known as Quakers).
In 1731 the Benezet family immigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded by Quakers and one of the English colonies of North America. Then 18 years old, Anthony Benezet joined John Woolman as one of the earliest American abolitionists. Like Woolman, Benezet also advocated war tax resistance.
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