18th-Century Philadelphia

In 1682, colonial Pennsylvania's capital city Philadelphia was founded by Quakers, a Protestant sect that believed in the equality of men and women, religious tolerance, and nonviolence. Only a few years later Quakers in Pennsylvania lodged the first recorded colonial protests against slavery. Throughout the next several centuries, Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania, remained a capital of Quaker thought and ideology. Pennsylvania, a state that bordered the South, also was the destination of many fleeing slaves. However, the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which allowed slaveowners to capture runaway slaves without a warrant, led to the capture of many legally freed African Americans.

Despite such Quaker tolerance, true racial equality and lack of discrimination did not exist in Phila-delphia. For instance, white Methodists favored the emancipation of the slaves, but they did not treat African Americans as equals.

Richard Allen and the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793

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