Dr. Benjamin Rush
American, 1745 - 1813
Benjamin Rush (1746–1813) was a Philadelphia physician, statesman, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. During the American Revolution, he served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and advised Thomas Paine on the publication of the 1776 pamphlet Common Sense. Rush was also a leading voice in the early American abolitionist movement. In 1773, he authored the influential pamphlet "An Address to the Inhabitants of the British Settlements, on the Slavery of the Negroes in America," printed by John Dunlap. In the text, Rush condemned human bondage as a violation of natural law and Christian morality, while explicitly refuting contemporary theories of racial inferiority.