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Quakers in Lancaster have acknowledged their forebears’ role as slave traders and slave owners, in a new plaque in the porch of their meeting house.

Quakers are known as slave trade abolitionists, but the slate plaque recognises that between 1711 and 1833, 18 Lancaster Quakers were involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and some owned enslaved people on their plantations.

These Quakers were not formally censured by Lancaster Meeting, despite Quakers nationally asking for those involved in the ‘iniquitous trade’ to be disowned.

“We acknowledge this history and seek to address the impact its legacy has today,” the plaque reads.

Lancaster Quakers acknowledge role as slave traders and slave owners in a new plaque in the porch of their meeting house.

Ann Morgan of Lancaster Quakers said that the plaque was the result of work begun in 2020 in response to the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

“We set out to identify and acknowledge the truth about how Quaker merchants in Lancaster had profited from the slave system,” she said.

Lancaster Quakers who made their fortune in the slave trade include the Rawlinsons, who owned plantations and traded in enslaved people, the Satterthwaites, and Dilworths.

Some were disowned by Lancaster Meeting for debt, or marrying a non-Quaker, or privateering with an armed vessel – but none for trading in or owning enslaved people.

Lancaster merchants, Quaker or not, would have traded goods produced by the enslaved such as cotton, mahogany, tobacco or sugar.

Lancaster Quakers have also produced a leaflet, outlining the decisions of Quakers nationally in the 18th century in response to slave trading and the ownership of enslaved people by Quakers, and the involvement of the Lancaster Quaker merchants. This will be available in the city museums and the Quaker meeting house.

Ann Morgan said: “The Lancaster findings were presented to the Quaker annual gathering in May this year, contributing to its decision to make practical reparations for the trans-Atlantic slave trade, colonialism and economic exploitation.

“This builds on our commitment to become an anti-racist church and our long-held commitment and work to safeguard the environment for future generations.”

Other Quaker meetings are working to understand their own slave pasts, and Quakers in Britain have asked all meetings to examine their resources and consider how Quakers might make reparations by financial and other means for the hurt, loss and damage inflicted by the slave trade.

Lancaster Quakers publicly acknowledge participation in slave trade with plaque in meeting house