HistoricSiteMarkers
Colonial America

First Protest Against Slavery

Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania

Marker Inscription

Here in 1688, at the home of Tunes Kunders, an eloquent protest was written by a group of German Quakers. Signed by Pastorius and three others, it preceded by 92 years Pennsylvania's passage of the nation's first state abolition law.

Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

The Story

In 1688, in the Germantown home of Tunes Kunders, a small group of German Quakers put pen to paper in what is remembered as the first formal protest against slavery in the American colonies. Drafted by Francis Daniel Pastorius and three others, the document argued on grounds of the Golden Rule that holding human beings in bondage was wrong. It came fully 92 years before Pennsylvania enacted the nation's first state abolition law.

Why it matters

The Germantown protest planted an early moral seed of American abolitionism, giving the long struggle against slavery one of its founding documents.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

In 1688, Philadelphia and its neighboring settlement of Germantown were young outposts of William Penn's colony, founded only a few years earlier on the promise of religious freedom. Penn's Pennsylvania drew people fleeing persecution in Europe, among them Quakers and, as the marker notes, German settlers seeking a place to live according to their conscience. Germantown itself had been established largely by German-speaking immigrants who brought their faith and their principles with them across the Atlantic.

This was colonial America in its earliest generations, a world in which slavery was legal and widely accepted across the colonies. Enslaved people were bought and sold as a matter of ordinary commerce, and few voices publicly questioned the practice. To object to it, in writing and by name, was to stand almost entirely alone.

Into that setting came a small community of German Quakers, people whose religious convictions ran deep and who took seriously the idea that all human beings were equal before God. It was in one of their homes that an extraordinary document took shape.

People & events

The marker records that in 1688, at the home of Tunes Kunders, a group of German Quakers wrote an eloquent protest against slavery. It was signed by Francis Daniel Pastorius and three others. Pastorius was a leading figure among Germantown's founders, a learned man who had helped establish the settlement, and his name has stayed attached to this act of conscience ever since.

The protest they composed argued, on moral and religious grounds, that holding human beings in bondage was wrong. Gathering in a private house to put such a conviction into writing was no small thing in a world where slavery was simply the accepted order. These were ordinary members of a religious community, not powerful officials, and yet they chose to speak.

What gives the moment its lasting power is the marker's own measure of time: this protest came fully ninety-two years before Pennsylvania passed the nation's first state law to abolish slavery. The people in that room were generations ahead of the law, and they knew they were speaking against the grain of their age.

Its place in the American story

The Germantown protest is remembered as one of the earliest formal objections to slavery written in the American colonies. It planted a moral seed that would take a very long time to grow. The struggle against slavery would stretch across nearly two centuries, through the founding of the nation and ultimately through civil war, but this quiet document stands near its beginning.

Its significance lies partly in how far ahead of its time it was. As the marker points out, Pennsylvania's own abolition law would not come for another ninety-two years, and the wider nation would take far longer still. That gap is a sobering reminder of how slowly conscience moved into law — and of how much courage it took to speak first.

The protest also shows where the American antislavery tradition drew some of its earliest strength: from religious communities who measured the world against their faith and found it wanting. The Quakers of Germantown, and immigrants who had themselves come seeking freedom of conscience, helped give the long fight against slavery one of its founding voices.

If you visit

Come to this site in the Germantown area of Philadelphia knowing that its importance is far larger than anything you will see with your eyes. There is no grand battlefield or towering monument here — the power of the place is in what happened, in 1688, when a few neighbors gathered in a home and wrote down a conviction the rest of their world was not ready to hear.

Stand for a moment and consider the scale of the courage involved. These were not lawmakers or generals but members of a religious community, taking a stand almost entirely alone, generations before the law would catch up to them. Let the marker's arithmetic sink in: ninety-two years passed between their words and Pennsylvania's first abolition law.

The marker fits naturally into a day exploring Philadelphia's deep colonial and founding-era history, a city dense with the places where American ideals were first argued into being. Make time for this one especially, because it speaks to conscience — the willingness of ordinary people to say that something is wrong long before the world agrees.

Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.

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Related people

  • · Francis Daniel Pastorius
  • · Tunes Kunders

Related events

  • · Germantown Protest Against Slavery

Themes & tags

Civil RightsAfrican American HistoryLandmark

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