This paper examines shifting Quaker identities and their negotiations around wealth from the seventeenth century onwards as members engaged with the early anti-slavery movement. The historical record shows Quaker involvement in transatlantic slavery entailed complicity, compromise, and competing demands. Yet, even within this "enmeshment" (Block, 2010), radical individuals emerged, challenging the status quo and pushing for systemic change despite personal investments and sometimes great cost.
The paper’s unique intervention charts a shift from viewing wealth as good business and benefaction toward recognising it as part of a harmful system - and ultimately converting it into a tool for reform. By mapping this evolution, the paper highlights the enduring ethical responsibilities accompanying financial power in advancing equality and freedom from harm. It offers modern wealth holders a framework to address historical complicity, repair harm, and advance justice today.