Discuss the reasons why Quakers and other early abolitionists opposed slavery.

The question requires that candidates offer a considered and balanced review of the reasons why Quakers and other early abolitionists opposed slavery. Reasons may predate the timeframe but they must be clearly linked to the issue raised in the question. Candidates may offer equal coverage of Quakers and other early abolitionists, or they may prioritize their discussion of one. However, both groups will be a feature of the response. A comparative approach may or may not be used. Candidates may refer to Quakers’ belief that human beings, regardless of their ethnicity, were equal and, consequently, slavery was immoral. Discussion may include references to the “Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery” (1688). Candidates may also discuss the violent capture of slaves, the conditions of the Middle Passage and the separation of slave families as factors contributing to early abolitionist reasons for opposition to slavery.

The question required candidates to offer a considered and balanced review of the reasons why Quakers and other early abolitionists opposed slavery. Discussion, as to the reasons, was engaged by a few candidates, most of whom provided rather limited and generalized descriptive knowledge of the Quakers and abolitionists. Most examples were selected from the period immediate to the Civil War.