English immigrant Thomas Stanley, born about 1670, championed the right to religious freedom early in the 1700s. Stanley gave nearby land for a Quaker meetinghouse, school, and cemetery. Until the 19th century, the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) convened here for worship. Here in 1767, Quakers spoke out strongly against enslavement of blacks, which resulted in a 1772 resolution prohibiting the purchase and hiring of slaves by Quakers. By 1779, they had recommended freeing all slaves and approximately 200 were freed as a result. In 1875, the meeting was disbanded because of westward Quaker migration. The building burned in 1904.
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