Pioneers of epoch-making reforms are seldom accorded the reward they
merit. Later apostles usually obscure the greatness of their
predecessors, and posterity is prone to overlook the pristine
achievements of those who first had the vision. Such is the case of
John Woolman, a poor, untutored shopkeeper of New Jersey. He was among
the foremost to visualize the wrongs of human slavery, but his real
significance as an abolitionist has been greatly dimmed by the
subsequent deeds of such apostles as Garrison, Phillips, and Lincoln.
John Woolman's career as an apostle of freedom dates from his first
appearance in the ministry of the Society of Friends, an organization
commonly known as the Quakers, founded by George Fox in England during
the middle of the seventeenth century. Shortly after the organization
of this society, many of the members migrated to New England and the
Middle Atlantic Colonies. Others were exiled by Charles II to the West
Indies.[167] Paradoxical as it may seem, these earliest Friends,
though distinguishing themselves from other Christian sects by their
special stress on immediate teaching and guidance of the Holy Spirit,
had no scruples against keeping slaves. As a matter of fact, there was
a prevalent conviction that Christianity indorsed slavery.[168]
This anomalous indifference to the enslaved Negro's condition remained
almost constant until 1742. A few sporadic attempts, to be sure, were
made to discountenance slavery, but popular opinion, incited by
greed, favored the institution. In 1671, for example, George Fox,
during his visit to Barbadoes, admonished slaveholders to train their
slaves in the fear of God; and further admonished the overseers "to
deal gently and mildly with their Negroes, and not use cruelty towards
them as the manner of some hath been and is, and after certain years
of servitude make them free."[169] Four years later, William Edmundson
complained against the unjust treatment of slaves, but was brought,
for his pains, before the Governor, on the charge of "endeavoring to
excite an insurrection among the blacks."[170] In 1688 the German
Quakers of Germantown, Pennsylvania, sent to the Yearly Meeting for
the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Colonies a protest against "the buying
and keeping of Negroes."[171] The matter was taken under advisement,
but not until eight years later did the Yearly Meeting advise against
"bringing in any more Negroes." The Chester Quarterly Meeting,
however, insisted upon the adoption of definite measures against slave
traffic, but the Society never manifested any enthusiasm for such
legislation. The Friends were themselves slaveholders, and
slaveholders were rapidly increasing their wealth and power through
slavery; so they felt no pressing need of reform. The Yearly Meetings,
therefore, like many modern congresses, dextrously dodged the grave
issue of Negroes' rights, and merely expressed an opinion meekly
opposed to the importation of the blacks, and a desire that "Friends
generally do, as much as may be, avoid buying such Negroes as shall
hereafter be brought in, rather than offend any Friends who are
against it; yet this is only caution and not censure."[172] Not until
1742 was any appreciable influence exerted on the Friends against
slavery. A storekeeper of Mount Holly, New Jersey, requested his clerk
to prepare a bill of sale of a Negro woman whom he had sold. The
thought of writing such an instrument greatly oppressed the clerk. He
complied, however, but afterwards told both the employer and the
customer that he considered slave-keeping inconsistent with the
Christian religion.[173] The clerk who ventured such an opinion was
John Woolman.
John Woolman was born in Northampton, in Burlington County, West
Jersey, in the year 1720. His youthful struggle against wickedness was
in many respects similar to Bunyan's. The fear of God seized him in
early boyhood, and an intense religious fervor characterized his
future career. Though this fervor was undoubtedly an innate tendency,
it owed its development partly to the early guidance of pious parents;
for Woolman's father was, without doubt, a devout Christian. Every
Sunday after meeting, the children were required to read the Holy
Scriptures or some religious books. Here, no doubt, was the beginning
of Woolman's religious devotion to the teachings of the Bible.[174] At
times, during his youth, he apparently forgot these earliest
teachings, but he never wandered too far to be reproved by his
conscience. When he reached the age of sixteen, his will was finally
subdued, and he learned the lesson that youth seldom learns,--that
"all the cravings of sense must be governed by a Divine principle." He
tells us that he became convinced that "true religion consisted in an
inward life, wherein the heart doth love and reverence God, the
Creator, and learns to exercise true justice and goodness, not only
toward all men, but also toward the brute creatures."[175]
All this time Woolman lived with his parents and worked on the
plantation. His schooling was, consequently, meagre, but he gave a
generous portion of his leisure to his self-improvement. At the age of
twenty-one, he left home to tend shop and keep books for a baker in
Mount Holly. Meanwhile, his religious fervor was growing more intense,
and with it his genuine philanthropy. The inevitable sequence of his
accelerated enthusiasm for spreading the teachings of Christianity was
his entrance into the Christian ministry.[176]
In 1746 Woolman accompanied his beloved friend, Isaac Andrews, on a
tour through Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina. It was on this journey
that he beheld for the first time the miseries of slavery.[177] He
became so depressed with what he saw that on his return he wrote an
essay on the subject, publishing it in 1754. The essay appeared under
the elongated title of "Some Considerations on the Keeping of
Negroes Recommended to the Professors of Christianity of Every
Denomination."[178] The theme of Woolman's discussion is the
Brotherhood of Man. "All men by nature," he argues, "are equally
entitled to the equity of the Golden Rule, and under indispensable
obligations to it."[179] The whole discussion, which is an appeal to
the Friends to be mindful of the teachings of the Bible, glows with
the religious zeal which was so eminently characteristic of the
author. It is replete with such Biblical references as are sure to
have a wholesome effect upon a religious sect like the Society of
Friends.
Woolman made a second visit in 1757 to the Southern meetings of the
Society of Friends. Again he beheld the miseries of slavery and became
greatly alarmed at the extension of the system. Everywhere he turned,
he saw slaves. What pained him most was the presence of slaves in the
homes of Friends. He declined, therefore, to accept the hospitality of
his several hosts, feeling that the acceptance of such courtesies
would be an indorsement or encouragement of the evil.[180] Meanwhile,
he held confidential talks with Friends on the subject of slavery. On
one occasion, when a colonel of the militia berated the Negroes'
slothful disposition, Woolman replied that free men, whose minds are
properly on their business, find a satisfaction in improving,
cultivating, and providing for their families; whereas Negroes,
laboring to support others, and expecting nothing but slavery during
life, have not the same inducement to be industrious. Again, when
another slaveholder gave the wretchedness of Negroes, occasioned by
intestine wars, as a justification of slave-traffic, Woolman answered
that, if compassion for the Africans, on account of their domestic
troubles, was the real motive of buying them, the spirit of tenderness
should incite the Friends to use the Negroes kindly, as strangers
brought out of affliction. Many other arguments were urged in defence
of slavery, among which number was the oft-repeated notion that the
Africans' color subjects them to, or qualifies them for, slavery,
inasmuch as they are descendants of Cain who was marked with this
color, because he slew his brother Abel.[181] In short, a large portion
of Woolman's time during this second journey was given over to
answering such arguments. He travelled in the two months, during which
he was out, about eleven hundred and fifty miles. His efforts were not
without fruit, for he made a profound impression on many of the
honest-hearted.
All this time Woolman fought single-handed against overwhelming odds,
but he was destined soon to have help from two of the most remarkable
and antithetical personages connected with this early movement against
slavery; namely, Benjamin Lay and Anthony Benezet.[182] Lay
represented the revolutionary type of reformer. Whittier describes his
personal appearance as "a figure only four and a half feet high,
hunchbacked, with projecting chest, legs small and uneven, arms longer
than his legs; a huge head, showing only beneath his enormous white
hat large, solemn eyes and a prominent nose; the rest of his face
covered with a snowy semicircle of beard falling low on his breast--a
figure to recall the old legends of troll, brownie, and kobold."[183]
By birth he was a Friend, but the Society in England disowned him on
account of his revolutionary propensities. He took up residence in the
West Indies, but was compelled to leave on account of his violent
denunciation of slavery. He went to Philadelphia, but finding slavery
there, retired to a cave, where he lived a most eccentric life,
refusing to eat food or wear clothes which had been secured at the
expense of animal life, or produced by slave labor. He made frequent
excursions, however, from his cave to denounce slavery, his favorite
subject being "Deliverance to the Captive." He usually succeeded in
being heard, though he was detested by the slaveholders. On one
occasion, when he interrupted a meeting in Philadelphia, he was
forcibly ejected by a burly blacksmith. He remained, however, the most
fearless of the earliest abolitionists. Though his methods were
entirely different from Woolman's, and though, no doubt, neither
reformer was influenced by the other, Lay's stubborn fight against
slavery was obviously helpful to Woolman's calmer campaign against the
same evil.
Anthony Benezet, on the other hand, was a reformer of riper judgment
and calmer methods than Lay. He has been described as "a small,
eager-faced man, full of zeal and activity, constantly engaged in
works of benevolence, which were by no means confined to the
blacks."[184] He was a descendant of persecuted French Protestants.
He, therefore, inherited an aversion to any form of persecution, and
readily became a benefactor of the slave. It was inevitable that he
should become a friend of Woolman, and a coadjutor in the movement to
abolish slavery.[185]
Whether Lay or Benezet was influenced by Woolman may be a matter of
speculation and debate. The consideration of primary importance is the
increasing interest manifested in abolition. The Friends were
beginning to realize that slavery was contradictory to the basic
principles of their organization. Woolman's real opportunity,
therefore, came at the memorable Yearly Meeting of 1758, in
Philadelphia--the meeting which Whittier has seen fit to term "one of
the most important convocations in the history of the Christian
church." All during the early part of the meeting, Woolman remained
silent, his "mind frequently covered with inward prayer." But when,
towards the close of the meeting, the subject of slavery was brought
up, he took such an active part in the discussion that he dominated
that part of the meeting. His remarks were simple but impressive.[186]
The effect was so immediate that many slaveholders expressed a desire
to pass a rule to treat as offenders Friends who in the future bought
slaves. But there arose the criticism that the real evil could hardly
be cured "until a thorough search was made in the circumstances of
such Friends as kept Negroes with respect to the uprighteousness of
their motives in keeping them, that impartial justice might be
administered throughout." Sober thought prevailed. Many assented to
the proposition, and others declared that liberty was the Negro's
right. Before the meeting closed, John Woolman, John Scarborough,
Daniel Stanton, and John Sykes were appointed a committee "to visit
and treat with such Friends as kept slaves."[187] Thus the first
important step towards the abolition of slavery was taken.
The committee lost no time in setting out on their mission. Such a
stupendous undertaking, however, was fraught with obvious
difficulties. In the first place, the system of slavery had assumed
such large proportions that it required a number of years to visit and
treat with any appreciable number of slaveholders. Again, it was by no
means easy to persuade slaveholders to give up a possession which
meant so much to them in power and wealth. Finally, it was
unfortunately true in the eighteenth century, as it is in the
twentieth, that an argument of right and justice, based upon
Christianity, did not have instantaneous effect upon professing
Christians. But Woolman seemed divinely inspired to perform his
mission. He travelled extensively and never hesitated to approach
Friends on the subject of slavery.[188] At the Yearly Meeting for
1759, he was gratified to learn that a recommendation had been made to
Friends "to labor against buying and keeping slaves."[189]
As a means of promoting his cause, Woolman published in 1762 the
second part of his "Considerations on Keeping Negroes," a continuation
of his appeal for the operation of the Golden Rule.[190] The overseers
of the press offered to print the essay at the expense of the Yearly
Meeting, but Woolman did not accept the offer. He published the essay
at his own expense.[191] Woolman gives the following reason for not
accepting the overseers' offer: "This stock is the contribution of the
members of our religious society in general, among whom are some who
keep Negroes, and being inclined to continue them in slavery, are not
likely to be satisfied with such books being spread among a people,
especially at their own expense, many of whose slaves are taught to
read, and, such receiving them as a gift, often conceal them. But as
they who make a purchase generally buy that which they have a mind
for, I believe it best to sell them expecting by that means they would
more generally be read with attention."
The story of the rest of Woolman's life is but a repetition of his
travels and labors in behalf of abolition. He travelled extensively,
beheld the deplorable conditions attending slavery, and preached to
Friends his only sermon, that "Whatsoever ye would that men should do
unto you, do ye even so unto them." He did not live to see the slaves
manumitted by all the slaveholding Friends, but he "was renewedly
confirmed in mind that the Lord (whose tender mercies are over all his
works, and whose ear is open to all the cries and groans of the
oppressed) is graciously moving in the hearts of people to draw them
off from the desire of wealth and to bring them into such an humble,
lowly way of living that they may see their way clearly to repair to
the standard of true righteousness, and may not only break the yoke of
oppression, but may know Him to be their strength and support in times
of outward affliction."[192]
Woolman's career was fittingly brought to an end in England, the
birthplace of the society for whose improvement he labored so
faithfully. He landed at London in June, 1772, and went straightway to
the Yearly Meeting.[193] He visited a number of meetings in
neighboring towns. While he was attending a meeting of Friends at
York, he was smitten with small-pox. He died of the malady, October 1,
1772. But his difficult duty had been performed, and his labor had not
been in vain. His efforts had so greatly influenced the Society of
Friends that the traffic in slaves had been almost abandoned during
his life. Some, of course, continued the practice of holding slaves;
but a protest against the practice was made at the Yearly Meeting two
years after the death of Woolman, and in 1776 the subordinate meetings
were instructed to "deny the right of membership to such as persisted
in holding their fellow-men as property." Thus, within four years
after the pious reformer's death, the Society of Friends embraced the
doctrine of abolition and made slaveholding an offence against
Christianity.
The life of John Woolman furnishes another example of a poor but
courageous man, who, guided by the real teachings of the Christian
religion, rendered a great service to mankind. Living at a time when
the defence of black men's rights was considered reprehensible, he
fought against discouraging odds for the brotherhood of mankind. He
was meek, persuasive, and confident. He was not a scholar, but "the
greatest clerks be not the wisest men," says Chaucer. Like Bunyan, he
was a student of the Holy Bible, and well understood its teachings. He
realized that no power is durable, or any religion permanent, that is
based on hypocrisy. He realized, further, that the grave question of
men's rights must be interpreted in terms of the Christian religion.
His fellow Friends, incited by selfish motives, had become unmindful
of the basic elements of their religion. In their attempt to condone
slavery and embrace the religion of brotherhood, they had made
Christianity appear farcical. John Woolman's task, then, was not to
propagate a new religion, but to make fashionable the Christian
religion in which all professed a belief. He succeeded because he was
allied to the right. He succeeded because he fought courageously
against the wrong. He succeeded because he was a true disciple of the
Christian religion. Although his laudable achievement is somewhat
overlooked in these days, and his name does not command a conspicuous
place on the pages of anthologies, the true lovers of freedom and the
sincere exponents of the Christian religion will always remember with
reverence the wonderful service of John Woolman, the pious Quaker of
New Jersey.