Slaves and Quakers

We took each other with our mutual bad habits and respective evils, for better, for worse; the Northern states adopted us with our slaves; and we adopted them with their Quakers.

South Carolinian William Loughton Smith, commenting in 1790 on slavery abolition petitions submitted to Congress by Quaker groups. The quote is taken from Lacy K. Ford's new book, Deliver Us from Evil: The Slavery Question in the Old South (Oxford University Press 2009).