ABSTRACT
Though little remembered in our history books, Warner Mifflin was one of the most unflinching anti-slavery spokesmen of the late-eighteenth-century age of revolutions and reforms. This essay investigates the role he played in the construction of a network of American reformers who led the campaign, through petitions, pamphlets and lobbying, to make good on the inalienable rights that Enlightenment and American Revolutionary figures believed would usher in a new world order. The essay also discloses the precedent Mifflin set for offering reparations to those he freed and how he helped other Blacks to obtain and preserve their freedom. For the mild-spoken but steely Quaker this was a matter of simple justice and a concern for human suffering. Finally, we will see how African Americans — both free and enslaved — operated in the shadows in the shaping of Mifflin's lifelong mission.
