Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Meetings and Events Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Philadelphia Free Produce Association of Friends Description An account of the resource Selections.<xsl-text></xsl-text> THE PHILADELPHIA FREE PRODUCE ASSOCIATION OF FRIENDS. AT the meeting of this Association [which we copy from the <xsl-text></xsl-text>Friends’ Review<xsl-text></xsl-text>], held the 20th ult., the following report from the Board of Managers was read and approved. The Board of Managers of the Philadelphia Free Produce Association of Friends, report: That, during the past year, the members of the Board have frequently met and given their attention to the subjects connected with the design of their Association; but, in consequence of the arrangement with our friend George W. Taylor, which has existed for two or three years past, the principal labour, both in relation to the manufacture of cotton goods, and a supply of groceries, has devolved upon him. His report, herewith submitted, will furnish a view of the state of the concern in regard to supply and demand. And here we may remark, without any disposition to cast unkind reflections upon others who do not take the same view upon this subject, which we have been induced to embrace, that we cannot do otherwise than regret the want of an active and cordial support, on the part of many members of our Society, of the effort thus made to supply consumers with the products of tropical climates, unstained by oppression and cruelty. While Friends, wherever located, and however circumstanced, without exception profess, and no doubt profess with sincerity, an unwavering conviction of the injustice and iniquity of the whole system of Slavery; and while none can deny that the entire burden of this fabric of violence and wrong is supported by the market for the produce of servile toil, still we do not find the active and decided preference to the productions of free labour, which the nature of the case, and the declared opinions of Friends in general, would lead us to expect. If Friends in general could be induced to supply themselves, whenever it can be done, with the products of the free labour, to the exclusion of those which are extorted from the drudgery of slaves, we can readily perceive that the increased demand thus created, would greatly facilitate the supplying of free goods, and reduce their cost to the level of those of a servile origin. With equal advantages and facilities in regard to supply and demand, free-labour can readily compete with that of Slavery. But while the mass of consumers purchase, without distinction, whatever can be found in the market, irrespective of the medium through which it is received, some enhancement of price must attend the production and transit from the producer to the consumer of those articles which are untouched by servile hands. At the same time, we have unquestionable and sorrowful evidence that the advocates of Slavery have not, in any degree, relaxed their efforts to perpetuate, and to extend into regions hitherto free, the oppressive, impolitic, and demoralizing system of Slavery. The attempts, now making, to introduce the system into California—the recent legislation in some of the States in relation to the coloured race—the effort, during the present session of the Pennsylvania Legislature, to procure an enactment excluding them from settling in the State, calculated, as it evidently was, to facilitate the capture of real or suspected fugitives from labour—the actual repeal of one section of the law to prevent kidnapping, which was passed in 1847 with almost unprecedented unanimity—and the manner in which the support of an oppressive and disgraceful law has been interwoven into the question of the Presidential election, as well as the subserviency to a slaveholding influence which has been manifested by aspirants to political distinction, may well awaken the anxiety of those who believe that it is righteousness that exalteth a nation, and that sin is not only a disgrace, but a certain precursor of calamity to any people. These circumstances evidently call for the exertion of such influence as we possess, to stem the tide of corruption which Slavery is pouring upon us. We have, however, the consolation to believe that the attention of many of the philanthropists of Europe has been unceasingly directed to this branch of the subject—the encouragement of free-labour—and the supply of tropical products by means not dependant upon servile toil. The new settlements on the African coast seem likely to bring various articles of tropical growth, produced entirely by the industry of free men, into successful competition with the products of American Slavery. The experiments recently made upon flax, as a substitute for cotton, furnish ground for a reasonable hope, that the time is not very remote when the products of the North may rival those of the South, in furnishing a cheap and comfortable article of domestic economy. Although the efforts of this Association have not been productive of any very obvious results, we may take encouragement from the signs of the times, and a thorough conviction of the goodness of our cause, to entertain a humble, yet confiding, hope that they may compose one of those little rills which, widening and deepening with the progress of time, and joining with homogenial streamlets, will at length (probably after we shall all have been gathered to the house appointed for all living) compose a river which shall sweep away this mighty fabric, which now stands a frowning monument of the barbarism of ages that are past, and of the blindness and cupidity of the period in which we live. On behalf of the Managers, SAMUEL RHOADES, Secretary of the Board. <xsl-text></xsl-text>Philadelphia, Fourth month <xsl-text></xsl-text>20 <xsl-text></xsl-text>th <xsl-text></xsl-text>, 1852. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived National Anti-Slavery Standard Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 6.3.1852 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Samuel Rhoades / Rhoads