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I Elias Hicks of Oysterbay in Queens County and Province of New York do hereby set free from bondage my Negro man named Ben Declaring him absolutely free for Ever without any Interruption from me or any person Claiming him from or under me in witness whereof I have hereto set my hand and seal this fourteenth day of the twelfth month and anno Domini one Thousand seven Hundred and seventy Eight. Elias Hicks Signed Sealed and Delivered in the Presence of John Willis, Eldrad Vanuyck. a true Coppy taken of the Manusion by me John Willis
Elias Hicks Manumission
Copy of manumission certificate issued by Elias Hicks, renouncing his claim to a slave named as "Ben."
Hicks, Elias, 1748-1830
1778-12-14
1 p.
reformatted digital
MSS 044
Elias Hicks Manuscript Collection, SFHL-MSS-044--https://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/resources/hicksmss
Elias Hicks (1748-1830) was an eminent Quaker minister from Jericho, Long Island, N.Y. He was a farmer, partner in a tannery, and had a knowledge of surveying. In 1771, he married Jemima Seaman, daughter of Jonathan and Elizabeth (Willis) Seaman. Beginning in 1776, Hicks served on a committee that visited friends' homes and urged members of Westbury Monthly Meeting to manumit any slaves they owned. He was recognized as a minister in 1779 and during the next fifty years, made sixty-three visits as a traveling Friend to meetings in the United States. In the 1820s, a religious controversy within the Society of Friends which focused on Hicks' ministry led to the so-called Hicksite-Orthodox Separation of 1827-1828.