Anthony Benezet - by David Chanoff (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Wilberforce, Clarkson, Wesley. Britain's great abolitionist activist Granville Sharp. Each of these consequential figures of the eighteenth-century Atlantic world were galvanized by the moral power of a modest Quaker teacher who never ventured more than a few miles from his home in Philadelphia: Anthony Benezet. While Benezet was buried in an unmarked grave, his fingerprints are all over the extinction of the Atlantic slave trade and the gathering strength of America's own burgeoning abolitionist movement. He was a figure of global importance, "a saint," Garry Wills called him, a great bearer to the rest of the world of the American ideals (no matter how compromised) of equality and liberty.

Anthony Benezet lived, by chance, at the nexus of radical Christianity and revolutionary democracy, and he fused the power of those two streams of morality in a way that changed lives and challenged political institutions so compellingly that the world became a different place because of him. But for all the magnitude of Benezet's impact, he is largely unknown outside scholars of the period. He does not exist in any meaningful way in the widely read histories and biographies that define and amplify America's historical consciousness.

In Anthony Benezet: Quaker, Abolitionist, Anti-Racist, preeminent biographer David Chanoff tells Benezet's story--who he was, what he did, how he did it, and why it was that William Penn's "Holy Experiment" of Pennsylvania provided the matrix for the historic transformation the abolitionist educator brought about. Indeed, Chanoff carves out a place for this forgotten American hero as a pioneering figure among those who launched American ideals onto the world stage.

Review Quotes

Anthony Benezet emerges from the pages of David Chanoff's compelling new biography as a 'disruptor' who could not stay silent in the face of evil. He saw himself first and foremost as a teacher, and his lessons about our common humanity are as relevant today as they were two and a half centuries ago.--Julie Winch "author of A Gentleman of Color: The Life of James Forten"

How timely and urgent is David Chanoff's gripping recovery of Anthony Benezet's lessons in ethics and civility! How many of us knew, before reading this contribution to history and politics, that an unassuming Quaker ignited probably the world's most momentous liberation movement, abolitionism, and its myriad of sequels? Readers will be grateful for this astounding story.--Doris Sommer "Ira and Jewell Williams Professor of Romance Languages & Literatures and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University"

David Chanoff's sweeping use of the biographer's detective tools has uncovered Anthony Benezet's long-hidden life and elevated him to the abolitionist pantheon.--Ray Anthony Shepard "Julia Ward Howe award-winner of A Long Time Coming: A Lyrical Biography of Race In America from Ona Judge to Barack Obama"

In this engaging biography, David Chanoff admirably weaves the threads of Anthony Benezet's life, his Huguenot inheritance, his writings, and his own legacy, thereby making a significant contribution to our knowledge of this key figure of early abolitionism.--Bertrand Van Ruymbeke "professor of American history at Université Paris 8, author of From New Babylon to Eden, and coeditor of The Atlantic World of Anthony Benezet"

That the name Anthony Benezet is unknown today is almost as shameful as the Atlantic slave trade, which the self-effacing Quaker did so much to put an end to. Bringing Benezet and his times back to life--his origins in Huguenot France, how he got to England and then Philadelphia, and what he achieved in the American colonies--will now be recorded in the pantheon of our greatest humanitarian heroes, thanks to David Chanoff's brilliantly evocative, scholarly but intensely readable, new biography.--Nigel Hamilton "author of Lincoln vs. Davis: The War of the Presidents"

I think of the history of the struggle for full human rights as being a great chain that stretches back over the centuries. If anyone has a claim to being the first American link in that chain--although his influence spread well beyond his country--it is Anthony Benezet. I hope this intriguing, gracefully-written book helps make this extraordinary man far better known.--Adam Hochschild "author of King Leopold's Ghost"

About the Author

DAVID CHANOFF has written for the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, New Republic, and the Wall Street Journal, among others. His twenty-four books include collaborations with former surgeon general Joycelyn Elders, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral William Crowe Jr., and Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon. In addition to ghostwriting, he has also written a number of histories, including a history of Black medicine and health care that was awarded the Phillis Wheatley Prize for History from the Sons & Daughters of the U.S. Middle Passage. Chanoff lives in Boston.