Granville Sharp as an Abolitionist and His Influence on Benjamin Rush

Benezet played a very important role in shaping Rush’s antislavery views, so did Sharp. On 29 October 1773, in a letter to Sharp, Rush expressed his sympathy to the sufferings of the poor Negroes and hoped the Providence could help them. Rush wrote, “I can add with pleasure, that a spirit of liberty and religion with regard to the poor Negroes spreads rapidly thro' this country. Providence I hope is at work in bringing about some great revolution in behalf of our oppressed Negro brethren. Let this encourage us to persevere in adding blow to blow to the monster of British tyranny in America.” Although Sharp had the same feeling as Rush, he realized that their career of abolishing the slavery was never easy. On 10 January 1774, Sharp replied to Rush with a letter, in which he mentioned that he had recommended further petitions to the King against the slave trade and had tried to persuade Messrs Duly to reprint Rush’s pamphlet without success.

Under the political influences of Benezet, Sharp and other abolitionists in the eighteenth century Atlantic world, Rush became an abolitionist and devoted himself to the abolitionism in Pre-Revolutionary Philadelphia. In Rush’s whole life, he disliked slavery very much. In the Spring of 1773, Rush informed a friend that he had refused a thousand guineas a year to move to Charles Town because of his antipathy to slavery. Moreover, he pledged to the Continental Congress to prohibit the importation of African slaves in America. In October 1774, Rush wrote a letter to Granville Sharp and asked the Continental Congress “never to import any more slaves into America,” because he believed that it could do more honor to the Congress. Rush hated slavery system so much that he naturally supported the African slaves.