I don’t know what happened to the formatting. My apologies.
The very first transatlantic abolitionist tract written anywhere, ever, was by an American. Ever. Period. The very first. The “oldest” in that sense. It was in 1700, “The Selling of Joseph”.
Samuel Sewall was British.
Long before that tract there were several Papal Bulls issued condemning slavery and calling for the freeing of slaves (both native inhabitants and imported ones). This from 1435, “... We order and command all and each of the faithful of each sex that, within the space of fifteen days of the publication of these letters in the place where they live, that they restore to their pristine liberty all and each person of either sex who were once residents of said Canary Islands ... who have been made subject to slavery (). These people are to be totally and perpetually free and are to be let go without the exaction or reception of any money.”
Sadly, a majority of Catholic slave holders put manna before justice and human rights. That does not negate the fact this document predates “The Selling of Joseph.”
Yeah, I've spent basically the last two decades dealing with progressives I know how this narrative magic works.
According to the progressives' historiography, anybody who supported slavery was American. Anybody who opposed slavery was British. It's magic. How did we get here I don't know just trust in your friendly local neighborhood progressive and dont ask questions.
The rule is: under no circumstances is America ever to at any time get credit for abolitionism. Giving America credit is completely ruled out and is a violation. The progressives' rule is that America is racist and evil and everybody else is pure as the wind driven snow.
Yes, I understand. I reject it. It's garbage.
Luckily all of the hypocrisies and contradictions are too glaring to ignore and its fun to pick it all apart since all of the facts are on my side.
If you are going to lay all blame for slavery prior to 1776 on The U.S., then you must, must, must also lay all blame for abolitionism prior to 1776 on The U.S. as well. You can't have it both ways, you can't keep your cognitive dissonance on this. Pick one but only one.