The Quaker Collection at Haverford and the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore have received a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant for the digitization of materials related to Quakers and slavery. The grant will allow both schools to preserve and distribute Quaker records dating from the 1600s that contain some of the earliest manifestations of the anti-slavery movement.

The Religious Society of Friends was the first corporate body in England and North America to fully condemn slavery as both ethically and religiously wrong in all circumstances. Haverford's Quaker Collection and Swarthmore's Friends Historical Library are joint custodians of most of the Quaker records from colonial America, which reveal the origins of the abolitionist movement and continued Quaker involvement in its leadership and direction from the 1770s through the late 1800s.

“Digitization of these materials will support their long-term preservation by reducing the amount they are handled,” says John Anderies, head of Haverford's Special Collections and co-director of the project.“It will also provide greatly increased access to researchers who are not able to visit us.” In all, more than 4,000 pages will be scanned and made available online.

In addition, students from both Haverford and Swarthmore will create a website featuring a detailed timeline, links to the documents, and articles by noted scholars. The finished site is scheduled to debut in the summer of 2010, in conjunction with a November 2010 international interdisciplinary conference on Quakers and slavery sponsored by the McNeil Center for Early American Studies and Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges.

-Brenna McBride