John Stephen Benezet (1683-1751)

He grew up within one of the wealthiest families at St. Quentin in the north of France. In 1715, after the Edict of Nantes, his estate was confiscated and he fled with his family to Rotterdam and then London. From there he travelled to Philadelphia where he was a successful merchant and the owner of several thousand acres. His son, Anthony, converted to Quakerism and led the Abolitionist movement in England and America - the first to publish books and papers that called attention to the slave-trade and the living conditions of enslaved Africans, as well as the plight of Native Americans.