<P> The first Americans who made a public protest against slavery were the Mennonites of Germantown , Pennsylvania . Soon after , in April 1688 , Quakers in the same town wrote a two - page condemnation of the practice and sent it to the governing bodies of their Quaker church , the Society of Friends . The Quaker establishment never took action . The 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery was an unusually early , clear and forceful argument against slavery and initiated the spirit that finally led to the end of slavery in the Society of Friends ( 1776 ) and in the state of Pennsylvania ( 1780 ) . The Quaker Quarterly Meeting of Chester , Pennsylvania , made its first protest in 1711 . Within a few decades the entire slave trade was under attack , being opposed by such leaders as William Burling , Benjamin Lay , Ralph Sandiford , William Southby , and John Woolman . </P>
<P> The first Americans who made a public protest against slavery were the Mennonites of Germantown , Pennsylvania . Soon after , in April 1688 , Quakers in the same town wrote a two - page condemnation of the practice and sent it to the governing bodies of their Quaker church , the Society of Friends . The Quaker establishment never took action . The 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery was an unusually early , clear and forceful argument against slavery and initiated the spirit that finally led to the end of slavery in the Society of Friends ( 1776 ) and in the state of Pennsylvania ( 1780 ) . The Quaker Quarterly Meeting of Chester , Pennsylvania , made its first protest in 1711 . Within a few decades the entire slave trade was under attack , being opposed by such leaders as William Burling , Benjamin Lay , Ralph Sandiford , William Southby , and John Woolman . </P>
who started the first antislavery movement in what would become the united states
who started the first antislavery movement in what would become the united states
the Mennonites of Germantown , Pennsylvania
the Mennonites of Germantown , Pennsylvania