Eighteen Philadelphians, most of them Quakers, organized the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage — known as Philadelphia Abolition Society (PAS) — in 1784. Benjamin Franklin (he became its president in 1789) and Benjamin Rush were among its members. In 1787, PAS led a local campaign to ban the international slave trade.