Philadelphia: Printed by Andrew Bradford, 1737. Bifolium leaf. 3 pp. Signed in type by Clerk John Kinsey. Creasing from old folds, separations along same; wear and chipping along edges; contemporary child's ink scrawl at top of first page ("Margaret Ellis..."); contemporary notations and ink scrawl on final blank page; scattered soiling and dampstaining; in quarter calf fall-down-back box. Hildeburn 554; Evans 4142; ESTC W5873

A very rare Philadelphia and Quaker document, with an early caution against participation in the slave trade: "As the Gospel breathes nothing but a Spirit of Love and Liberty to Mankind, so it hath been the early Care of Friends to caution against the practice of Trading in Negroes, which we think it necessary to repeat, and that those who have of them, treat them with Tenderness, as advis'd in several Epistles and Minutes of this Meeting." It was pioneering abolitionist and Quaker Benjamin Lay who persistently held his fellow Friends to adhere to this exhortation, and who excoriated those in the Quaker community who remained bedfellows with slavery in his tract All Slave-Keepers That Keep the Innocent in Bondage: Apostates, published in the same year as this document by Bradford's rival Benjamin Franklin.

Other messages within, directed at young and old Friends alike, demand the exercise of good behavior, the refrain from "indecent Use of Strong Drink", as well as the eschewing of "corrupt habits in Speech, airy and effeminate Gestures, with all needless, fanatical and Impetuous Things, in Dress and Furniture, together with Plays, Games, Sports and Pastimes".

Rare. ESTC locates only three examples, at Haverford College, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the Friends Historical Society of Swarthmore College. OCLC locates a further copy at the Durham University Library. According to RBH, this is the first copy offered since 1928, which was then catalogued as "One of the rarest of Quaker Broadsides".