Quakers and the Enslaved in North Carolina

Tarheel Quakers and the Fight Against Slavery

Quakers settled the Carolina Colony in the 1650s, bringing their slaves and servants with them. Industrious coastal Quakers soon rose to prominence on the backs of their enslaved men and women, and Piedmont Quaker lives were enriched by the people they enslaved as well. Sparked by the observations of John Woolman, Carolina Quakers took up the battle against slavery in the 1700s, beginning with themselves. Legal conflicts, the Free Negro program, colonization, the North Carolina Manumission Society and the Underground Railroad were the results. Combining North Carolina slave narratives, runaway slave ads, digital archives, local histories and internet blogs, Tim Allen re-creates the inspiring story of Tarheel Quakers who fought each other and the state to abolish enslavement in antebellum North Carolina.

Tim Allen taught history, religion, and humanities at the community college and university level for thirty years. He earned a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from the University of South Carolina-Columbia, a master’s degree in religious studies from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a doctorate in theological studies from the Graduate Theological Foundation, where he was a McQuarrie Fellow. In 2006, he attended the Oxford Roundtable to explore issues of religion and state. His publications include North Carolina Quakers: Spring Friends Meeting; Snow Camp, North Carolina; and, with Steven Miller, Slave Escapes and the Underground Railroad in North Carolina.