A 1791 Anti-Slavery Sermon

Jonathan Edwards, D.D. (1745-1801)
The Injustice and Impolicy of the Slave Trade and of the Slavery of Africans . . . A Sermon.
New Haven, Connecticut:
Thomas and Samuel Green, 1791
Rare Book & Special
Collections Division (96A)

Connecticut theologian Jonathan Edwards, born 1745, echoes Anthony Benezet's use of the "golden rule"--whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them--as well as the natural rights arguments of the Revolutionary era to justify the abolition of slavery. In this printed version of his 1791 sermon to a local anti-slavery group, he notes the progress toward abolition in the North and predicts that through vigilant efforts slavery would be extinguished in the next fifty years.