“In Europe there are many oppressed for Conscience sake and here there are those oppressed which are of a Black Colour!”: European Experiences in Pennsylvania’s First Manifest against Slavery (1688)

They had left Europe because they had experienced discrimination. Now four men belonging to the founders of Germantown in Pennsylvania saw the need to act against slavery in this British colony.  Garret Hendericks, Derick Op den Graeff, Abraham Op den Graeff and Franz Daniel Pastorius brought forward a motion to stop the enslavement of African people. Concepts of Europe were essential for this first manifest against slave trade in colonial history. On the one hand Europe was characterized as a sphere of religious intolerance. The authors reminded their neighbours of their own bad experiences in Europe to make their own programme plausible: the liberation of all mankind. On the other hand they saw themselves accountable to a general public in Europe and expressed shame about servitude now existing in their new home country. The paper will discuss multifaceted and paradox concepts of Europe and their importance for the identity of emigrants living in a new world. It will also deal with concepts of the Non-European appearing in the Manifest against Slavery.