1 Jan 1785 Jahr - New-York Manumission Society Founded

Beschreibung:

AKA: "The New-York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, and Protecting Such of Them as Have Been, or May be Liberated"

The New-York Manumission Society was an American organization founded in 1785 by U.S. Founding Father John Jay, among others, to promote the gradual abolition of slavery and manumission of slaves of African descent within the state of New York. The organization originally comprised a few dozen friends, many of whom were themselves, slaveholders, at the time, and all of whom were white men. Most members were wealthy and held influential positions in society. Throughout its history, which ended in 1849, the society battled against the slave trade, and for the eventual emancipation of all the slaves in the state. In 1787 It founded the African Free School for the poor and orphaned children of slaves and free people of color.

The committee reported a plan for gradual emancipation: members would free slaves then younger than 28 when they reached the age of 35, slaves between 28 and 38 in seven years' time, and slaves over 45 immediately. This was voted down, and the committee was dissolved.

The Society was founded to address slavery in the state of New York, while other anti-slavery societies directed their attention to slavery as a national issue. The Quakers of New York petitioned the First Congress (under the Constitution) for the abolition of the slave trade. In addition, Benjamin Franklin and the Pennsylvania Abolition Society petitioned for the abolition of slavery in the new nation, while the New York Manumission Society did not act. Hamilton and others felt that Federal action on slavery would endanger the compromise worked out at the Constitutional Convention, and, by extension, would endanger the new United States.

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