经典译文之美国独立战争前的反奴隶制斗争（一）_文学文化

　antislavery is almost as old as slavery itself. indeed it could easily be argued that the first enslaved person who jumped overboard or led an on-ship rebellion on the middle passage launched the antislavery movement.

　the modern intellectual antislavery movement emerged as two distinct but overlapping currents, one religious, the other secular. religious ideas were the chief wellspring of antislavery thought. the earliest protest on record is the 1688 germantown petition signed by four german quakers and mennonites. citing matthew 7:12, the petitioners set out one of the resonant themes of religious antislavery: "is there any that would be . . . sold or made a slave for all the time of his life? 匱here is a saying, that we shall doe to all men as we will be done ourselves." when the quaker meeting took no action, george keith took a much sterner line. in an exhortation and caution to friends buying and selling negroes (1693), keith reminded his fellow quakers that slavery was contrary to the principles and practices of their faith, and in spectacularly bold terms, he invoked the language of divine vengeance: "he that stealeth a man and selleth him, if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death (exodus 21)."

　one of the first published antislavery pamphlets in america (the selling of joseph, 1701) was written by the new england puritan, samuel sewell, whose biblically based arguments refuted the pro-slavery justifications for slavery constructed by the greeks and romans and developed by aristotle. "god hath given the earth [and all its commodities] unto the sons of adam, and hath made of one blood all nations of men," sewell wrote. the selling of joseph was reprinted in philadelphia in 1737 by the british-born quaker, benjamin lay. lay's antislavery book all slave-keepers that keep the innocent in bondage, apostates, was published by benjamin franklin, whose antislavery rationale leaned more heavily on secular arguments. this publication of a tract in the religious tradition of antislavery by a more secular-minded proponent of antislavery may have forged the first link between these two traditions.

　described by john greenleaf whittier as "the irrepressible prophet" who "troubled the israel of slaveholding quakerism, clinging like a rough chestnut-burr to the skirts of its respectability," the four-foot-seven-inch-tall lay was given to histrionics, on one occasion piercing a bladder filled with pokeweed juice concealed within the covers of a book while shouting to the astonished quaker meeting, "thus shall god shed the blood of those who enslave their fellow-creatures." both lay and the humble, self-effacing john woolman were present at the 1758 yearly meeting of friends in philadelphia that unanimously adopted a resolution against slavery. but it was the combination of woolman and the french-born schoolmaster and quaker, anthony benezet, that jolted the yearly meeting into taking an official position against slavery and eventually disowning friends who refused to comply.