Anti-Slavery Resolutions

Reintroducing John Jay’s Tabled Anti-Slavery Resolutions from 1860
In 1860, John Jay II introduced a group of anti-slavery resolutions at the annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of New York . He met with opposition that is hard to comprehend today, but was very real then in a city which remained a major center of the slave trade, and the resolutions were "tabled." At the diocese's 2019 convention, its Reparations Committee will introduce a resolution calling for the 1860 resolutions to be reconsidered and adopted, and for the clergy and people of the diocese to "give effect to [their] letter and spirit."

“As we continue our process of lamentations for slavery,” explains the committee, “this act is the right thing to do and will move us closer to the 2020 Diocesan Convention when we are calling on the Episcopal Diocese of New York to execute a formal apology for the sin of slavery.”

This short video provides some background to the events of 1860, and why this action matters in 2019.

Reintroducing John Jay's Tabled Anti-Slavery Resolutions from 1860 from Episcopal Diocese of New York on Vimeo.