Benjamin Rush Attacked Slavery

Furthermore, Rush opposed to the slavery in terms of the law of equity in the New Testament. According to him,

If in the Old Testament “God swears by his holiness, and by the excellency of Jacob, that the Earth shall tremble and every one mourn that dwelleth therein for the iniquity of those who oppress the poor and crush the needy, who buy the poor with silver, and the needy with a pair of shoes,” what judgments may you not denounce upon those who continue to perpetrate these crimes, after the more full discovery which God has made of the law of Equity in the New Testament.

Rush considered that God asked people to be sympathetic to the poor and the oppressed according to the law of Equity from the New Testament. Therefore, it was unfair for Europeans to enslave Africans.

Finally Rush drew his conclusions that colonial Americans should “put a stop to slavery” in terms of “all mankind as equal” and the slaves should be entitled “all the privileges of free-born British subjects.” On 1 November 1774, in a letter to Granville Sharp, Rush advocated the emancipation of slaves in Southern colonies. Rush pointed out, “the climate and toils in the Southern colonies will soon eradicate slavery there. If a more gentle treatment should be adopted it will prepare their slaves for emancipation. I now feel a new attachment to my native country, and I look forward with new pleasure to her future importance and grandeur. ” As a radical abolitionist, Rush not only proclaimed the emancipation of slavery in North America, but considered the future of colonies without slavery in North America.