John Woolman
(1720-1772)
John Woolman, sometimes referred to as the “Quaker Saint,” was born
near the Rancocas River in Burlington County, New Jersey (then West
Jersey). His family on both sides had strong roots in the Quaker colony they
had helped to settle and then to shape. One of thirteen children, Woolman grew
up surrounded by a large and supportive family, and he early displayed a
sensitivity for spiritual matters and a love for nature and Quaker traditions.
Like many eighteenth-century Quakers, Woolman had a limited formal education,
but he nonetheless valued learning, and evidence suggests that his reading
extended far beyond the list of books normally prescribed to members of the
Society of Friends, as Quakers are officially called.
In 1749, Woolman
married Sarah Ellis, from neighboring Chesterfield. Little is known about Ellis
other than Woolman’s famous description of her in his Journal as “a well
inclined damsel.” Nevertheless, there is no information to suggest that their
marriage was anything but an extremely felicitous one. The couple had two
children, but only one, a daughter, survived into adulthood. Prior to his
marriage, Woolman assisted a local tailor, and his success led him to establish
a business of his own in Mount Holly, New Jersey, where he also managed a large
farm and occasionally wrote legal documents and taught. Because of his
well-deserved reputation for honesty and industry, Woolman’s business expanded
and became more prosperous. Fearing that inordinate wealth and excessive
involvement in business endangered his soul by drawing his attention toward
worldly matters, Woolman decided early in his marriage to curtail his business
activities, limiting them to what was essential for supporting his family.
Eventually Woolman gave up mercantile trade altogether and devoted his energies
almost exclusively to his family, his farm, and his work as a Quaker
spokesperson.
Woolman’s deliberate
withdrawal from the world of commerce is consistent with Quaker beliefs that
life should be conducted in a simple and direct manner and that the internal
spiritual world should always take precedence over the external material world.
Above all, Quakers believe that all individuals harbor within themselves an
innate sense of right and wrong, which they term the “Inner Light.” It is the
responsibility of the individual, Quakers believe, to cultivate the workings of
the “Inner Light” by removing oneself from all unnecessary distractions and encumbrances.
In line with this reasoning, Quakers of Woolman’s day, like Quakers of today,
attempted to practice a simple lifestyle based on hard work, frugality, and
contemplation. When politics or business entanglements encroach on their quest
for inner harmony, Quakers are simply encouraged to withdraw from the source of
conflict. Even Quaker worship is designed to minimize external distractions.
Unlike their Puritan, Presbyterian, and Anglican neighbors to the north and
south, the Quakers of the Middle Colonies shunned traditional rituals. The
typical Quaker meeting consisted simply of a quiet gathering, with men and boys
seated on one side of the room and women and girls on the other. If during the
meeting a member of the group felt an inner urging or “prompting” to address
the assembly, that person would stand and speak. Sometimes, however, Quaker
meetings passed in total silence. According to Quaker practice, an individual,
whether male or female, who has spoken frequently and wisely on behalf of the
spirit is accorded local recognition as a minister but is not required to
undergo ordination or any formalized process of theological instruction.
While in his early
twenties, Woolman showed signs of a special ministerial calling and was
acknowledged a minister by his community. In the years to follow, he pursued
his calling wherever his “Inner Light” led him, traveling thousands of miles,
often on foot, throughout the colonies and eventually to England. The main
focus of his ministry was the abolition of slavery, which he denounced as a
“dark gloominess hanging over the land” and an unspeakable injustice.
Woolman’s abhorrence
of slavery began early in life when the man to whom he was apprenticed asked
him to write a bill of sale for a slave belonging to a senior member
of the Quakers. His dislike of slavery continued to grow, especially after
he had labored in the South and seen firsthand the degradation that slavery
brought to both slave and slaveholder. Always quiet and persistent in his
determination to convince the world that slavery and Christianity were totally
incompatible, Woolman illustrated through his own conduct the principles of
compassion and goodwill that formed the central message of his itinerant
ministry. He refused, for example, to use sugar products or dyes because these
items were obtained largely through reliance on slave labor, and during his
travels he insisted on paying a remuneration to any slaves who worked in homes
where he lodged. Such behavior was his way of drawing attention to his convictions,
and it was apparently not without effect, for he records in the Journal
instances when he successfully altered the hearts of slaveholders.
In addition to his
work on behalf of abolition, Woolman championed the rights of Indians and the
poor. On the eve of Pontiac’s war with the colonies, Woolman journeyed on a
mission of peace to the Wyalusing Indians of western Pennsylvania. He was never
in good health, and throughout this trip he was frequently endangered by both
the hostilities surrounding him and the primitive living conditions he of
necessity endured. Nonetheless, he persisted in his mission and was well
received by the Indians. After observing the situation of the Indians and
listening to their grievances, Woolman returned home with a severe indictment
of frontier traders, on whose greed in selling rum to the Indians he blamed the
war then taking place. Eventually Woolman’s compassion for the downtrodden led
him to England, where he died of smallpox on October 7, 1772, a few months
after his arrival.
As a writer, Woolman
is best remembered today for the Journal that he kept intermittently
between 1756 and his death. Published posthumously by the Society of Friends in
1774, Woolman’s Journal is but one of many first-person accounts of the
lives of pious eighteenth-century American Quakers; indeed, it participates in
a tradition of journal-writing begun by George Fox himself that continues to
the present. It is generally acknowledged, however, that Woolman’s Journal
stands out among others in the genre for its remarkable sense of clarity
and conviction; for this reason alone, popular interest in the Journal
has never slackened.
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