David Cooper (abolitionist)

David Cooper (December 12, 1724 – April 1, 1795) was an

American farmer, Quaker, pamphleteer and an author of David Cooper
abolitionist ideals in the latter 1700s. A native of New Jersey, he
Born December 12, 1724
lived the greater part of his life in and around Gloucester and
Woodbury, New
Salem, New Jersey. Cooper was vocal on the issue of slavery and
was devoted to the abolitionist movement before, during and after Jersey, U.S.
the American Revolution. As a devoted Christian and Quaker, he Died April 1, 1795
made numerous comparisons between abolition and Biblical (aged 70)
thought in his writings, orations and orations. By submitting Woodbury, New
pamphlets and petitions, Cooper appealed to and encouraged Jersey, U.S.
George Washington and the Congress to make efforts to abolish Resting Quaker Cemetery,
slavery. He is noted for writing a 22-page anti-slavery tract place New Jersey
addressed to the "Rulers of America", which was distributed to
Occupation Farmer, politician,
members of Congress, a copy of which Washington signed and
kept in his personal library. abolitionist
Spouse Sybil Matlack
Cooper
Personal life
Children Amos Cooper and
Martha Allinson
David Cooper was born in Woodbury, New Jersey located along
the Delaware River, close to Philadelphia, on December 12, 1724. Relatives John Cooper
His father was John Cooper; his mother, Ann Clarke. David (brother)
married Sybil Matlack Cooper. They had at least two children who Signature
survived their childhood: Amos Cooper and Martha Allinson.[1]
David's father, John, received a sizable inheritance from his
grandfather. John Senior died in 1730, when David was six.
Subsequently, David and his siblings were raised by their mother who was a devoted Quaker. The
community he was raised in was also largely devoted to the Quaker ethic. David's maternal grandfather,
Benjamin Clarke, was among the first Quaker abolitionists in colonial America. David in turn received an
inheritance from his late father, which included a plot of land; he used his inheritance to launch a successful
business, for which he felt he was blessed.[2]

David's older brother, John, died in 1728 at the age of ten. A year later David's parents gave birth to another
son whom they also named John, who lived to adulthood. i.e. John Cooper, David's younger brother,[a]
became a notable figure during the American Revolution, and was the author of the New Jersey
Constitution of 1776.[4] He was also elected to the Second Continental Congress in 1776, but it is unclear
whether he attended or not.[5]

On October 22, 1777, in the aftermath of the Battle of Red Bank, the Coopers were driven from their
homes in Woodbury when the British took control of the entire area on their way to Philadelphia, with
General Cornwallis occupying the home of David's brother John, using it as his temporary headquarters.[6]

In his memoirs, Cooper documents his early life, family history, marriage, the birth of his children, his
involvements with the Quakers, and the various struggles he faced with his faith. He also recounts his work
as a New Jersey representative in 1761, along with an account of his participation at Quaker Meetings. He
wrote the manuscript during his final years, for his children, when his health was failing, so that they would
have a personal record of his life and work after he had died. David Cooper died in 1795, at age 70, in
Gloucester County, New Jersey.[7]

Quaker and abolitionist

Brought up in a household that condemned slavery, David came to regard slavery as an institution contrary
to natural law. His sense of the injustice of slavery, which largely arose from the injustices and inhumanity
involved with the Atlantic slave trade, became evident in his 1772 correspondence with Granville Sharp, a
leading and outspoken English abolitionist.[8] As a dedicated Quaker and a staunch abolitionist[9] Cooper
petitioned Congress three times in his effort to advance abolition legislature and abolish slavery, lobbied
President George Washington, and wrote about these prospects at length in his diary and other
writings.[10][11] He also directed his criticism of slavery against the British Crown, Quakers were pacifist
and were opposed to violence during the American Revolutionary War.[12]

For eight years, beginning in 1761, Cooper served in the State of New Jersey as an elected member of the
New Jersey House of Assembly.[13]

In 1772 he wrote and published Mite cast into the treasury: or, Observations on slave-keeping, which was
coauthored by Anthony Benezet another leading abolitionist.[14][15] As a Christian and Quaker, Cooper
made numerous references and parallels to Biblical thought throughout his book.[16] In the introduction
Cooper definitively summarized his position regarding prejudice and slavery:

"The power of prejudice over the minds of mankind is very extraordinary; hardly any extremes
too distant, or absurdities too glaring for it to unite or reconcile, if it tends to promote or justify
a favorite pursuit. It is thus we are to account for the fallacious reasonings and absurd
sentiments used and entertained concerning negroes, and the lawfulness of keeping them
slaves"[15]

In 1785 Cooper, along with other Quakers, like Samuel Allinson, submitted petitions to the Legislature for
purposes of enacting emancipation legislation. The bills failed but the Legislature instead passed a law the
next year that helped expedite manumissions, which stipulated that slave owners provide education for their
slaves. The law also added penalties for any abuses to slaves, while also outlawing the slave trade.[17]

Address to Rulers of America

In 1783 Cooper wrote a 22-page declaration condemning slavery, which was published in a leading
Quaker abolitionist tract, addressed to the U.S. government; the Address was entitled A Serious Address to
the Rulers of America, on the Inconsistency of Their Conduct Respecting Slavery.[18][19][b] The pamphlet
was a treatise written in strong and unforgiving terms, accusing American slaveholders of "treason" against
the natural rights of man, and of making a "mockery" of the Declaration of Independence.[20] Throughout
his Serious Address Cooper appealed to Americans' "regard for the honour of America", regarding equality
and liberty against British tyranny, as contradictory with the practice of American slavery.[21] The Serious
Address contained numerous references and parallels to the revolutionary ideals expressed in the
Declaration of Independence of 1776, Congressional Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking
Up Arms, of 1775; Congressional Declaration of Rights and Grievances of 1774 and other such
declarations from the various states.[c] Alongside of his arguments Cooper made references to quotations
taken from these documents.[22]
Cooper published the tract with the intention that it be read aloud in the various colonies at a time when the
Quakers were not in the best favor due to their non-violent and passive involvement in the American
Revolution. As a result, Cooper decided to publish his tract anonymously, concealing its Quaker origins.[23]
One year before his death, Anthony Benezet presented copies to George Washington and members of
Congress along with a copy to each member of the New Jersey Assembly.[20][24]

Cooper's tract asserted that the Golden Rule was a natural law from Christ that outlawed slavery.[23] In one
passage, Cooper addressed his remarks, in religious tones, to America's critics over the gap between liberty
and slavery, that the new nation was making strides to end slavery on the basis of natural freedom endowed
by the creator.

Washington would later sign his name to a copy and keep it in his private library.[18][19] Thomas Jefferson
also received a copy, which is now in possession of the Library of Congress.[21]

"Now is the time to demonstrate to Europe, to the whole world, that America was in earnest,
and meant what she said, when, with peculiar energy, and unanswerable reasoning, she pled
the cause of human nature, and with undaunted firmness insisted, that all mankind came from
the hand of their Creator equally free. Let not the world have an opportunity to charge her
conduct with a contradiction to her solemn and often repeated declarations; or to say that her
sons are not real friends to freedom".[22][d]

Benezet, who helped Cooper with his Serious Address, admired Cooper's work and sent a copy to John
Pemberton, a good friend and publisher in London, on September 10, 1783. In a postscript Benezet had
written, "I also enclose a piece lately published on slavery & c. viz. A Serious Address." Cooper had
written his Address anonymously, signing it A Farmer, to protect the Society of Friends from any
responsibility of its controversial message,[25] and was displeased with Benezet that he had published his
authorship and revealed his real identity. Writing Cooper, Benezet asked if one of his pamphlets could be
"stiched together" with Cooper's and published. His request was not well received by Cooper. In a letter of
June 15, 1783, to Samuel Allinson, Cooper expressed his concerns about anonymity, protesting that
Benezet "...knows how careful I was of having the author suspected. ... I regret he saw it", concluding, "I
might near as well have put my name to it". He sent one to each member of Congress, and to our own
Assembly at Burlington, and is about writing to our Governor." Benezet had also given a copy to George
Washington.[24][26] Cooper and some of his Quaker contemporaries continued with their efforts to bring
about abolition. Writing in 1779, Cooper advocated the boycott of any goods produced by slave labor.[27]

Concept of emancipation and abolition

Cooper's concept of emancipation and abolition is delineated in his writings, and in other pamphlets
published by Quakers during the latter half of the eighteenth century, with the idea of gradual
emancipation being the central idea. Cooper disagreed with lifelong bondage and felt that masters should
give their slaves a home and education and that slaves should be granted their freedom at a given age, in
accordance with natural law.[8] His ideas of abolition closely paralleled those surrounding indentured
servitude in the American colonies where servants were required to serve for a given length of time, usually
about seven years, and would be under the authority and discretion of their master. Like many slaves, they
could not marry, own property, or leave the master's property without his permission. Cooper likened the
institution of indentured servitude with his ideas of gradual emancipation. Cooper and many of his Quaker
contemporaries established the amount of time for slaves to serve would be until they reached a "proper
age". Cooper's ideas first became public in 1772 when he published his A Mite cast into the Treasury...',
where he asserted that, "every individual of the human species by the law of nature comes into the world
equally entitled to freedom at a proper age." Sometime later he fixed this age to be eighteen for women, and
twenty-one for men. Also, when Cooper made reference to female slaves, he explained "...till she came to
the age of a woman, at which time she was pronounced free by the law of nature, and precepts of Christ."
Therefore, he believed that all of humanity was a dependent under the rule of an authority before growing
into maturity. In his Mite cast Cooper also criticizes the slave trade, asserting that slaves were treated like
"brute animals" with no regard for the idea that they, also, were creatures of God.[6][28]

See also
Anthony Benezet, Benjamin Rush and Warner Mifflin – prominent abolitionists in Cooper's
day
Quakers in the abolition movement
Pennsylvania Abolition Society
List of abolitionist forerunners

Notes
a. This was an age when infant and child mortality was common, where the tradition was, that
if a child died, its name would be passed on to the next born of the same gender.[3]
b. The Full title is: A Serious Address to the Rulers of America, on the Inconsistency of their
Conduct respecting Slavery: Forming a Contrast Between the Encroachments of England on
American Liberty and American Injustice in Tolerating Slavery
c. which also included the Declaration of the Rights of Pennsylvania, of 1776, and the
Declaration of the Rights of Massachusetts of 1779.
d. Passage is found on page four in the original printing.

Citations
1. Flynn (ed), 2015, p. 3
2. Smith, 2014, pp. 18–19
3. Smith, 2014, p. 19
4. Smith, 2014, pp. 17–19
5. Smith, 2014, p. 33
6. Smith, 2014, pp. 24–25
7. Flynn (ed), 2015, pp. 3–4
8. Smith, 2014, p. 25
9. Nash, 1990, p. 19
10. Jackson, 2016, p. 16
11. Saul, Cooper, David
12. Jackson, 2010, p. 28
13. Cadbury, 1937, p.47
14. New York Public Library, Digital Collections
15. Cooper, 1772, Introduction, p.1
16. Cooper; Benezet, 1772, pp. 6–10
17. Sinha, 2016, p. 84
18. Morgan, 2000, pp. 291–292
19. Hayes, 2017, p. 235
20. Nash, 1990, p. 117
21. Furstenberg, 2011, p. 264
22. Davis, 1999,, pp. 281, 333
23. Kershner, 2018, p. 86
24. Jackson, 2010, p. 136
25. Jackson, 2010, pp. 30, 136
26. Brookes, 1937, pp. 457–458
27. Jackson & Kozel, 2016, p. 107
28. Cooper, 1772, pp. 11–12

Bibliography
Brookes, George S. (1937). Friend Anthony Benezet (https://books.google.com/books?id=r0
4QAQAAIAAJ). University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 9781512810660.
Cadbury, Henry J. (1937). "QUAKER BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES: II. Antislavery Writings".
Bulletin of Friends Historical Association. 26 (1): 39–53. doi:10.1353/qkh.1937.a425559 (htt
ps://doi.org/10.1353%2Fqkh.1937.a425559). JSTOR 41944034 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/
41944034).
Cooper, David; Anthony, Benezet (1772). A mite cast into the treasury: or, Observations on
slave-keeping (http://pudl.princeton.edu/viewer.php?obj=9k41zf239#page/6/mode/2up).
Princeton University.
Cooper, David (1983) [1783]. A Serious Address to the Rulers of America, on the
Inconsistency of Their Conduct Respecting Slavery: Forming a Contrast Between the
Encroachments of England on American Liberty, and American Injustice in Tolerating
Slavery (https://books.google.com/books?id=WtJCAQAACAAJ).
Davis, David Brion (1999). The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770-1823 (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=f0bpXfc0IBsC&q=%22david+cooper%22). Oxford University
Press. ISBN 978-0-1980-2949-6.
Flynn, Kara, ed. (2015). David Cooper memoir (http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/pacscl/ead.pd
f?id=PACSCL_HAVERFORD_USPHCMC97507108&sort=title_sort%20asc&detail=detaile
d&showall=sort&rotation=0&fq=repository_facet%3A%22Haverford%20College%20Quake
r%20%26%20Special%20Collections%22&id=PACSCL_HAVERFORD_USPHCMC97507
108&) (PDF). Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections. ISBN 978-1-3172-7279-3.
Furstenberg, François (2011). "Atlantic Slavery, Atlantic Freedom: George Washington,
Slavery, and Transatlantic Abolitionist Networks". The William and Mary Quarterly.
Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. 68 (2): 247–286.
doi:10.5309/willmaryquar.68.2.0247 (https://doi.org/10.5309%2Fwillmaryquar.68.2.0247).
JSTOR 10.5309/willmaryquar.68.2.0247 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5309/willmaryquar.6
8.2.0247).
Hayes, Kevin J. (2017). George Washington: A Life in Books (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=CzzVDgAAQBAJ&q=george+washington,+david+cooper,+quaker). ISBN 978-0-1904-
5668-9.
Kershner, Jon R. (2018). To Renew the Covenant": Religious Themes in Eighteenth Century
Quaker Abolitionism (https://books.google.com/books?id=ToR1DwAAQBAJ). BRILL.
ISBN 978-9-0043-8883-3.
Jackson, Maurice (2010). Let this Voice be Heard: Anthony Benezet, Father of Atlantic
Abolitionism (https://books.google.com/books?id=1_b0QwpkS5MC&q=david+cooper,+a+ser
ious+address). University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-2126-8.
 Jackson, Maurice; Kozel, Susan (2016). Quakers and Their Allies in the Abolitionist Cause,
1754-1808 (https://books.google.com/books?id=RovDCwAAQBAJ&q=Samuel+Allison,+abo
litionist). Routeledge Publishers. ISBN 978-1-3172-7279-3.
Lewis, Enoch; Rhoads, Samuel (1862). Friends' review; a religious, literary and
miscellaneous journal, Vol. XV (https://archive.org/details/friendsreviewrel15lewi/page/596).
Philadelphia, J. Tatum.
——; Rhoads, Samuel (1863). Friends' review; a religious, literary and miscellaneous
journal, Vol. XVI (https://archive.org/details/friendsreviewrel14lewi_0/page/n7?q=Friends%2
7+review%3B+a+religious%2C+literary+and+miscellaneous+journal). Philadelphia, J.
Tatum.
Morgan, Kenneth (2000). "George Washington and the Problem of Slavery". Journal of
American Studies. 34 (2): 279–301. doi:10.1017/S0021875899006398 (https://doi.org/10.10
17%2FS0021875899006398). JSTOR 27556810 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/27556810).
S2CID 145717616 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:145717616).
Nash, Gary B. (1990). Race and Revolution (https://books.google.com/books?id=S0PNOtNg
SBcC&q=washington). Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-9456-1221-6.
Eric Saul, ed. (2018). "American Abolitionists and Antislavery Activists" (http://www.american
abolitionists.com/abolitionists-and-anti-slavery-activists.html#C). Retrieved May 29, 2019.
Sinha, Manisha (2016). The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition (https://books.google.com/
books?id=ukEnDgAAQBAJ). Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300181371.
Smith, Bill L. (2014). "Journal: Never Take Kinship Personally: Confronting Slavery,
Masculinity, and Family in Revolutionary America". Quaker History. 103 (1): 17–35.
doi:10.1353/qkh.2014.0005 (https://doi.org/10.1353%2Fqkh.2014.0005). JSTOR 24896081
(https://www.jstor.org/stable/24896081). S2CID 145788205 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/
CorpusID:145788205).
Cooper, David (1772). A mite cast into the treasury: or, Observations on slave-keeping (http
s://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=evans;idno=N09682.0001.001;rgn=div1;view=tex
t;cc=evans;node=N09682.0001.001:3). Evans Early American - Text Creation Partnership.
Retrieved May 30, 2019.
"Biographical Directory of the United States Congress" (http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/
biodisplay.pl?index=C000756). Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20160304003358/htt
p://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C000756) from the original on March
4, 2016. Retrieved July 12, 2019.

Further reading
Brown, Christopher Leslie (2012). Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism (https://
books.google.com/books?id=TaI--qgb1QcC&q=cooper). UNC Press Books. ISBN 978-0-
8078-3895-2.
Carey, Brycchan; Plank, Geoffrey (2014). Quakers and Abolition (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=MLkPBAAAQBAJ&q=Quakers+and+Abolition+Brycchan+Carey,+Geoffrey+Plan,+
google+book). University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-2520-9612-9.
Cooper, David (1772). A Mite Cast Into the Treasury: Or, Observations on Slave-keeping (htt
ps://books.google.com/books?id=V2oXvgAACAAJ). J. Crukshank.
DeBusk, Krristin (2004). An Ordinary Man in Extraordinary Times: David Cooper's Fight
against Slavery (http://testfamilygenealogy.net/History/Petition/Files/David%20Cooper%20S
enior%20Thesis.pdf) (PDF). University of Texas.
 John P. Kaminski, 1995, A Necessary Evil?: Slavery and the Debate Over the Constitution,
p. 26 (https://books.google.com/books?id=t3SDQgfxsCIC&q=washington)

External links
Entire text of : A Serious Address to the Rulers of America, on the Inconsistency of their
Conduct respecting Slavery (https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=evans;cc=evans;
rgn=main;view=text;idno=N14096.0001.001)
Online Books by Anthony Benezet (http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookup
name?key=Benezet%2C%20Anthony%2C%201713%2D1784)

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