Seth Lesser read the “1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery” written by members of the Religious Society of Friends one year after the document was published. The first protest against African-American slavery in a former English colony by a religious group was signaled by the publication of this document signaled.
Seth Lesser father, Hartford Lesser, bequeathed to him thousands of acres of plantation land. To plantation owners like him, slave labor was essential. However, having read the Quaker document, his conscience was pricked. He freed his slaves gradually, without anyone suggesting that he do so,
Many of Seth Lesser slaves did not claim their freedom. They regarded him as a kind master. He introduced reforms in his own plantation system for those who remained his slaves. These included, among others, fixed hours of work, which was unheard of at that time. He gave them education and social welfare benefits. He also gave them small plots of land. From said land, his slaves harvested their own means of sustaining themselves. Among slaves and slave-owners alike, these did not pass unnoticed. These earned his slaves the envy of other slaves. It earned him the hatred of slave-owners.
What ultimately led to the untimely demise of Seth Lesser was his kindness. He was ganged up on by plantation owners who owned slaves around his property. His fellow plantation owners broke into his property and killed him in the early hours of June 1851. All the slaves found on his property by the murderers were executed and his plantation was burned down by them.
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