Writings of Warner Mifflin: Forgotten Quaker Abolitionist of the Revolutionary Era

by Warner Mifflin, Gary B. Nash (Editor), Michael R. McDowell (Editor)

Overview

In The Writings of Warner Mifflin: Forgotten Quaker Abolitionist of the Revolutionary Era Gary B. Nash and Michael R. McDowell present the correspondence, petitions and memorials to state and federal legislative bodies, semi-autobiographical essays, and other materials of the key figure in the U.S. abolitionist movement between the end of the American Revolution and the Jefferson presidency. Virtually unknown to Americans—schoolbooks ignore him, academic historians barely nod at him; the public knows him not at all—Mifflin has been brought to life in Gary B. Nash’s recent biography, Warner Mifflin: Unflinching Quaker Abolitionist (2017). This volume provides an array of insights into the mind of a conscience-bound pacifist Quaker who became instrumental in making Kent County, Delaware a bastion of free blacks liberated from slavery and a seedbed of a reparationist doctrine that insisted that enslavers owed “restitution” to manumitted Africans and their descendants. Mifflin's writings also show how he became the most skilled lobbyist of the antislavery campaigners who haunted the legislative chambers of North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania as well as the halls of the Continental Congress and the First and Second Federal Congresses. An opening introduction and introductions to each of the five chronologically arranged parts of the book provide context for the documents and a narrative of the life of this remarkable American.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781644531853
Publisher:	University of Delaware Press
Publication date:	06/21/2021
Pages:	608
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

GARY B. NASH is a professor of history emeritus and director emeritus of the National Center for History in the Schools at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he has taught since 1966. He has published many books and essays, including Quakers and Politics: Pennsylvania, 1681-1726; Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early America; andThe Urban Crucible: Social Change, Political Consciousness and the Origins of the American Revolution.
 
MICHAEL R. MCDOWELL, for more than fifteen years, has researched eighteenth-century Delaware Quaker Warner Mifflin’s antislavery activism using primary documents, including Mifflin’s extensive correspondence. McDowell has published articles on Mifflin and an early Delaware Quaker antislavery petition in Delaware publications. 

WARNER MIFFLIN (August 21, 1745-October 16, 1798) was born in Virginia to a slaveholding Quaker family. He moved to Delaware in 1769 and later established himself as a prominent abolitionist.

Table of Contents

Illustrations                                           
Editorial Apparatus                                        
Abbreviations                                            

Introduction                                            

Part One                                            
Before the Revolution                                       
Warner Mifflin’s First Deed of Manumission, ca. mid-1766                    
To John Pemberton, September 22, 1774                          
Warner Mifflin’s Second Deed of Manumission, October 22, 1774                
Warner Mifflin’s Third Deed of Manumission, January 9, 1775              

Part Two
The Revolutionary Years                                    
Warner Mifflin’s Freedom Pass for Manumitted Slave, February 15, 1777           
To Unknown Friend, October 16, 1778                            
To Alexander Huston, January 17, 1779                            
Mifflin’s Statement Concerning His Refusal to Use and Circulate Continental Currency, August, 1779                                                
From Rebecca Jones, August, 1779                               
To Nicholas Waln, December 1780                               
To Henry Drinker, January 11, 1781                             
To Moses Brown, July 26, 1781                                
To John Willis, Elias Hicks, and Others, July 26, 1781               
To French Naval Officers at Newport, Rhode Island, [after August 6, 1781]       
To James Pemberton, August 26[?], 1781                           
To John Pemberton, August 26, 1781                                
To Moses Brown, October 3, 1781                                
To Thomas McKean, November 5, 1781                            
From David Cooper, December 1781                                
To John Pemberton, December 5, 1781                            
Some Remarks Proposed for the Consideration of the People of Virginia, and Particularly of Those in the Legislature and Executive Powers of Government, ca. May 1782       
To the Speaker and House of Delegates in Virginia, The Memorial of a Committee of the People Called Quakers, May 29, 1782                                
To John Parrish, August 18, 1782                               
To Henry Drinker, September 8, 1782                         
To John Parrish, October 31, 1782                               
To John Parrish, January 6, 1783                                
To James Pemberton, January 6, 1783                            
To James Pemberton, January 19, 1783                            
To Henry Drinker, January 19, 1783                               
To Nicholas Van Dyke, July 16, 1783                           
To the United States in Congress Assembled, The Address of the People Called Quakers, October 4, 1783                                        
To John Parrish, October 12, 1783                                
To Nathanael Greene, October 21, 1783                            
From Nathanael Greene, [late November 1783]                        
To John Parrish, November 4, 1783                                

Part Three
After the Revolution                                       
To James Pemberton, December 9, 1783                           
To John Parrish, December 14, 1783                                
To John Parrish, May 13, 1784                               
To James Pemberton, August 17, 1784                            
To John Parrish, August 27, 1784                                
To Henry Drinker?, November 16, 1784                            
To James Pemberton, December 11, 1784                            
To James Pemberton, January 16, 1785                           
To James Pemberton, February 16, 1785                           
To John Parrish, August 22, 1785                               
To the General Assembly of the Delaware State~The Memorial and Address of the People Call'd Quakers Inhabitants of This State, December 27, 1785                    
To Daniel Mifflin, June 6, 1786                               
To John Dickinson, August 11, 1786                                
To Governor William Smallwood, August 31, 1786                        
To James Pemberton, December 12, 1786                            
To James Pemberton, February 3, 1787                            
To John Parrish, February 9, 1787                                
To John Parrish, April 30, 1787                                
To Abigail Parrish, May 13, 1787                                
To Abigail Parrish, June 4, 1787                                
To John Parrish, June 19, 1787                                
To John Parrish, June 29, 1787                                
To the Archbishop of Canterbury, June 30, 1787                       
To John Parrish, July 6, 1787                                    
Testimonial for Negro Grace Hicks, August 8, 1787                       
To Edward Stabler?, October 14, 1787                            
To Moses Brown, December 3, 1787                                
To John Parrish, December 13, 1787                                
To Thomas McKean, December 14, 1787                           
To John Parrish, December 16, 1787                                
To James Pemberton, December 21, 1787                            

Part Four
The Early Republic                                       
To John Parrish, April 5, 1788                               
To John Parrish, April 16, 1788                               
To John Parrish, April 19, 1788                                
To John Parrish, May 11, 1788                                
To James Pemberton, May 28, 1788                                
To John Parrish, June 23, 1788                                
To James Pemberton, November 17, 1788                            
To John Parrish, November 19, 1788                                
To John Parrish, November 29, 1788                                
To James Pemberton, December 29, 1788                            
From Louis Philippe Gallot de Lormerie, ca. late 1788                   
To William Tilghman, February 24, 1789                            
Appointment of Committee by the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting to Prepare an Antislavery Petition to Congress, September 29, 1789                            
Memorial of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting to Congress, October 3, 1789       
Appointment of Committee to Present Petition to Congress, October 3, 1789        
To James Pemberton, December 28, 1789                           
To Henry Drinker, February 1790                                
Testimony to the House of Representatives Select Committee, February 15, 1790        
To Abiel Foster, Chairman of the House Select Committee, ca. February 17-26, 1790    
Queries to the House Select Committee, March 2, 1790                    
To William Loughton Smith, March 10, 1790                        
To President George Washington, March 12, 1790                        
To Members of Congress, March 16, 1790                           
To John Parrish, April 10, 1790                                
To George Thatcher, May 4, 1790                                
To Members of the House of Representatives, June 2, 1790                    
To Henry Drinker, June 3, 1790                                
From George Thatcher, June 12, 1790                            
To Henry Drinker?, June 15, 1790                                
To Benjamin Rush, June 19, 1790                               
From Henry Drinker, July 15, 1790                                
To President Washington, February 20, 1791                        
To the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Meeting for Sufferings, June 30, 1791           
To Henry Drinker, July 14, 1791                                
To John Parrish, October 10, 1791                                
To the General Assembly of the Delaware State: The Petition and Address of Warner Mifflin, October 18, 1791                                        
To the Delaware Constitutional Convention, December 22, 1791                
To the General Convention of the Delaware State, December 27, 1791            
From Joseph Galloway, April 10, 1792                           
To John Parrish, May 6, 1792                                    
To the Delaware Constitutional Convention, May 23, 1792                    
To Henry Drinker, June 27, 1792                                
To Henry Drinker, August 6, 1792                               
To the President, Senate, and House of Representatives of the United States. The Address of the People Called Quakers, November 17, 1792                            
To President Washington and Congress, November 23, 1792                
To George Washington, December 12, 1792                           
To John Parrish, January 21, 1793                                
A Serious Expostulation with the Members of the House of Representatives of the United States, Philadelphia, 1793                                       
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Delaware State, January 24, 1793     
To the King of Spain, April 29, 1793                               
To Moses Brown, June 15, 1793                                
To George Thatcher, July 10, 1793                                
To John Parrish, December 2, 1793                                
To the Citizens of the United States from the American Convention of Abolitionist Societies, January 6, 1794                                        
To Moses Brown, January 24, 1794                                
To John Parrish, January 24, 1794                                
“Awful Considerations On the Probability of Judgments Coming On the Land Because of the Injuries Attending Slavery of Fellow-Men,” July 10, 1794                    
To Susanna Mifflin, November 2, 1794                            
To Henry Drinker, November 12, 1794                            
To Henry Drinker and Thomas Morris, November 24, 1794                    
Mifflin Petition as Next Friend of Jonathan Negroe, December 3, 1794           
To Henry Drinker, December 14, 1794                            
To Henry Drinker, January 21, 1795                                
To John Parrish, May 17, 1795                                
To the General Assembly of the State of Maryland, November 1795            
To Henry Drinker, December 30, 1795                            
Mifflin’s Resolution on Kidnapping of Free Blacks for Consideration of the Delaware Senate and House of Representatives, February 5, 1796                        
To John Parrish, February 13, 1796                               
To Moses Brown, March 26, 1796                                
To John Parrish, April 9, 1796                                
The Defence of Warner Mifflin Against Aspersion cast on him on Account of his endeavours to promote Righteousness, Mercy, and Peace among Mankind, Philadelphia, 1796       
To Henry Drinker, September 4, 1796                            
To John Parrish, April 16, 1797                                
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress, September 28, 1797                                                
From Henry Drinker, November 15, 1797                           
To John Parrish, November 25, 1797                                
To John Parrish and Thomas Stewardson, December 3, 1797               
From the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Committee to the House Committee of Fifth Congress, January 22, 1798                                        
To John Parrish, February 21, 1798                               
To Henry Drinker, [ca. March 25, 1798]                            
To Henry Drinker, April 1, 1798                               
To Henry Drinker, May 4, 1798                               
To Henry Drinker, June 16, 1798                                
To Henry Drinker, June 26, 1798                               
To His Children, July 7, 1798                                   
From Samuel Hopkins, July 28, 1798                               
To John Parrish, September 30, 1798                                
To John Adams, September 24, 1798                              
From George Churchman and Jacob Lindley to John Adams, January 17, 1801      
From John Adams to George Churchman and Jacob Lindley, January 24, 1801        
To John Parrish, undated but probably 1790s                            

Part Five
In Memoriam                                           
Death Notice, October 22, 1798                                
Death Notice, October 23, 1798                               
A Brief Account of the Late Warner Mifflin, by Ann Emlen Mifflin, October 25, 1799   
Testimony of Motherkiln Monthly Meeting                           
Testimony Concerning Warner Mifflin, by His Intimate Friend and Survivor, George Churchman                                                    
Richard Allen Testimony for Warner Mifflin, 1799                       

Works Cited                                            
Acknowledgments                                      
Index