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THERE IS DEATH IN THE POT - The University of Texas at Arlington

THERE IS DEATH IN THE POT - The University of Texas at Arlington

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challenged Friends to examine their testimony on slave-labor produce. Citing the<br />

example <strong>of</strong> John Woolman, Rhoads argued th<strong>at</strong> Friends had for more than a century<br />

practiced individual abstinence from slave-labor products. Still, Quakers as a sect had<br />

failed to adopt abstinence despite the Society’s stance against slave trading and slave<br />

owning. Rhoads claimed Friends used slave-labor products as a m<strong>at</strong>ter <strong>of</strong> custom. He<br />

also alluded to the criticism <strong>of</strong> conserv<strong>at</strong>ive Friends, who had argued against collective<br />

action against slavery. “We are told th<strong>at</strong> we shall have no reward for <strong>at</strong>tempting to do<br />

good in our own wills: and it is assumed th<strong>at</strong> those who are laboring in this cause are so<br />

doing,” Rhoads wrote. “Would it not be as well to inquire wh<strong>at</strong> our reward will be for<br />

persisting to do evil in our own wills,” he asked, countering conserv<strong>at</strong>ive Friends’ claims<br />

th<strong>at</strong> joining secular anti-slavery societies was an <strong>at</strong>tempt to correct th<strong>at</strong> which was better<br />

left to divine guidance. 32<br />

Rhoads, along with Abraham Pennock and George W. Taylor, helped establish<br />

the Free Produce Associ<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> Friends <strong>of</strong> Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in 1845.<br />

Following a meeting in April, the three were part <strong>of</strong> the committee charged with drafting<br />

a constitution and issuing a call for a general meeting in June. Though the call did not<br />

specifically limit membership to men, much about the circular itself implied th<strong>at</strong> was<br />

indeed the case. Signed by ten prominent Quaker men including Rhoads, Pennock, and<br />

32 Samuel Rhoads, Consider<strong>at</strong>ions on the Use <strong>of</strong> the Productions <strong>of</strong> Slavery, Addressed to the<br />

Religious Society <strong>of</strong> Friends, 2 nd ed. (Philadelphia: Merrihew and Thompson, 1845), 27. <strong>The</strong> title was<br />

slightly altered in the second edition. See Samuel Rhoads, Consider<strong>at</strong>ions on the Use <strong>of</strong> the Productions <strong>of</strong><br />

Slavery, Especially Addressed to the Religious Society <strong>of</strong> Friends, Within the Limits <strong>of</strong> Philadelphia Yearly<br />

Meeting (Philadelphia: Merrihew and Thompson, 1844), http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/textidx?c=mayantislavery;idno=18865611<br />

(accessed May 2, 2010). <strong>The</strong> c<strong>at</strong>aloging inform<strong>at</strong>ion incorrectly<br />

identifies this text as written by the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (Hicksite).<br />

205

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