John Woolman

Birth

John Woolman is born into a Quaker family in Burlington County, New Jersey, and grows up along the Rancocas River.

The Bill of Sale

John Woolman is the called upon in his capacity as notary to write out a bill of sale for a Negro slave. Seeing the institution of slavery as inconsistent with religious testimony for equality, he decides to embark upon a ministry in witness against the holding of slaves.

Visit to Native Americans

Woolman travels unarmed to the Pennsylvania frontier, just at the end of the French and Indian War, to listen and understand, “looking less at the effects of my labors than at the pure motion and reality of the concern, as it arises from heavenly love.”

A Plea for the Poor

Woolman completes and hand-copies a finished version of this work.

“To enforce the duty of tenderness to the poor, the inspired law-giver referred the children of Israel to their own experience: ‘Ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.’ He who hath been a stranger among unkind people, or under the government of those who were hard-hearted, has experienced this feeling; but a person who hath never felt the weight of misapplied power comes not to this knowledge but by an inward tenderness, in which the heart is prepared to sympathize with others.”

Steerage

Woolman undertakes a voyage on the Mary & Elizabeth but insists on taking passage in the steerage of the vessel. His purpose is to convey the message of anti-slavery to the Meetings of Friends in England.

In England

Woolman arrives in England on June 8, 1772, speaking to the Annual Meeting of Friends and then proceeding toward Yorkshire. Because of the bad reputation of the stage coaches for mistreating horses and post-boys, he refuses to use that means of transportation, typically walking from one place to another. For the same reason, he does not send letters home.

“So great is the hurry in the spirit of this world, that in aiming to do business quickly and gain wealth the creation at this day doth loudly groan.”

His Dream

“In a time of sickness, a little more than two years and a half ago, I was brought so near the gates of death that I forgot my name. Being then desirous to know who I was, I saw a mass of matter of a dull gloomy color between the south and the east, and was informed that this mass was human beings in as great misery as they could be, and live, and that I was mixed with them, and that henceforth I might not consider myself as a distinct or separate being. In this state I remained several hours. I then heard a soft melodious voice, more pure and harmonious than any I had heard with my ears before; I believed it was the voice of an angel who spake to the other angels; the words were, ‘John Woolman is dead.’ I soon remembered that I was once John Woolman, and being assured that I was alive in the body, I greatly wondered what that heavenly voice could mean. I believed beyond doubting that it was the voice of an holy angel, but as yet it was a mystery to me.”

Death

John Woolman dies in York, England, on October 9, 1772.