Benezet, Anthony

BENEZET, ben´´e-zet´, ANTHONY: Quaker philanthropist; b. at St. Quentin, France, Jan. 31, 1714; d. at Philadelphia May 3, 1784. He belonged to a Huguenot family which settled in England in 1715, joined the Quakers there, and came to Philadelphia in 1731. He was a cooper by trade, but gave his life after coming to America to teaching and to philanthropic efforts, against slavery and war, in behalf of the American Indians, and the total abstinence cause. In 1742 he became English master in the Friends' School at Philadelphia and in 1755 established a girls' school there. In 1750 he undertook an evening school for slaves. He wrote many tracts against the slave trade and printed and distributed them at his own expense; he also published A Short Account of the People Called Quakers (Philadelphia, 1780); The Plainness and Innocent Simplicity of the Christian Religion (1782); Some Observations on the Situation, Disposition, and Character of the Indian Natives of this Continent (1784).

Bibliography: R. Vaux, Memoir of Anthony Beneset, Philadelphia, 1817, revised by W. Armistead, London, 1859.