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Black History Month- Chappaqua Friends Meeting House
Release Date: February 01, 2022
Every Tuesday in the month of February, we will be highlighting different locations in Westchester that honor Black History Month.
Today, we highlight the Chappaqua Friends Meeting house, "circa 1753, is the oldest Quaker meeting house standing in Westchester County. In the early 1750s, members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, began to challenge the morality of slavery in colonial New York. In 1767, the Purchase community of Friends decreed that it was forbidden for its members to own enslaved people, stating that '[It] is not consistent with Christianity to buy or sell our fellow men for slaves.'
The Society of Friends resolved that all of its members should release their enslaved people and seek to provide them with the means to support themselves and their families. The Quaker opposition to slavery served as a primary catalyst in its abolition in post–Revolutionary War New York."
