1780 AMERICAN REVOLUTION & ABOLITIONISM. Persecuted Quakers Still Find Time to Advocate for Abolition in America.

A superb document issued during the absolute height of the American Revolutionary War, offering immediate insight into Quaker maintenance of their radical moral testimonies amidst total geopolitical fragmentation. Printed by the central London Yearly Meeting during its session from the 15th to the 20th of the fifth month and addressed explicitly to Philadelphia and other overseas congregations, this circular was dispatched at a time when Great Britain and the nascent United States were locked in open military conflict.

Because British troops were actively occupying parts of the colonies and maritime trade lanes were heavily guarded or disrupted by naval warfare, the physical survival and transmission of this letter across the Atlantic is a remarkable testament to the resilience of Quaker communication networks, which operated entirely outside the boundaries of warring empires.

By 1780, American Quakers were facing severe hardships, including heavy fines, the confiscation of their property, and imprisonment by revolutionary authorities for refusing to swear allegiance oaths, pay war taxes, or enlist in the Continental Army. This epistle provided the vital structural and spiritual reinforcement that colonial Friends needed to resist these immense patriotic pressures, counseling them to endure worldly suffering rather than compromise their pacifism.

This year also marked a monumental turning point for abolitionism within American Quakerism; in 1780, Pennsylvania passed its Gradual Abolition Act, a legislative breakthrough heavily influenced by decades of internal Quaker purification and the total prohibition of slaveholding within their own ranks. This document captures the profound intersection where a marginalized religious community was simultaneously reshaping American civil rights through early abolitionist pressure while strictly maintaining an unpopular counter-culture of pacifism in a war-torn landscape.

[American Revolution, Slavery, Pacifism]. Bleckly, William. The Epistle from the Yearly-Meeting Held in London, By Adjournments, form the 15th of the Fifth Month 1780, to the 20th of the same, inclusive. To Friends and Brethren, at their next Yearly-Meeting to be held in Philadelphia, for Pennsylvania and New-Jersey. 3pp.

A very fine large bifolium with early folds, some toning and some subtle foxing. Very sound and clean.