Woolman, John

Woolman, John (1720–72), New Jersey‐born Quaker, had little formal education, and was a tailor's apprentice, baker, and shopkeeper until age 26, when he felt the presence of God in his heart commanding him to preach the gospel. As a preacher and leader of his faith, he began the long series of journeys which, with intermittent schoolteaching, occupied the rest of his life. His ardent humanitarianism aroused his interest in the problems of black slavery and the distribution of wealth. His two essays entitled Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes (1754, 1762) are among the earliest American antislavery works, and his other pamphlets include Considerations on Pure Wisdom and Human Policy (1758), on labor, education, and “the right use of the Lord's outward gifts”; Considerations on the True Harmony of Mankind (1770); A Plea for the Poor (written 1763), first published (1793) under the title A Word of Remembrance and Caution to the Rich; and An Epistle (1772), setting forth his religious belief in a farewell to friends before his departure for England, where he died. Woolman was consistently interested in social problems, but, when in opposition to the prevailing ideas of this world, governed himself by a principle of “passive obedience,” obeying the letter of the law but not its spirit, for though he “studied to be quiet” and live according to his own views, he reasonably accepted that which was required of him. Although having frequently to bow to external authority, in personal matters he did what he wished, giving up dyed clothes because he knew dyes were harmful to workers and giving up sugar because of conditions among plantation slaves. He is best known for his lengthy Journal (1774), a classic document of the inner life characterized by a crystal‐pure style, of which Whittier in his edition of 1871 said “it has a sweetness as of violets.” Others have paid similar tributes, Channing finding it “beyond comparison the sweetest and pur‐est autobiography in the language,” and Charles Lamb exhorting his readers to “get the writings of John Woolman by heart.”