Chapter 13: 1746-1754, A Quaker abolitionist

The Spirit had been working on John Woolman’s mind for many years now, and he knew it was time to answer that calling. “I feel drawn to travel about and share with others the light which our True Shepherd has placed within me,” he confided to his friend Isaac. “I believe that I am drawn to that same calling!” Isaac replied. “I was hoping that you would say that,” John smiled.

2 “What do you think about visiting the Meetings in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia?” he pressed. “I would be honored to accompany you on such a journey, but we will have to seek the blessings of our own Meetings to do so,” Isaac answered. “Yes, if we desire to be accepted among Friends in those places, we will need certificates,” John agreed.

3 As a consequence, John brought the matter to the attention of the next Monthly Meeting at Burlington. And, after brief expressions of support, his brethren there decided to grant him the letter of introduction to the Friends in neighboring colonies which he had requested. Isaac received the same support from his congregation.

4 Thus, with the blessing of the Jersey Quakers, the two men set out full of missionary zeal and high hopes for the success of their enterprise. Along the way, they stayed in the homes of willing Friends and spoke with their brethren on First Day (Sunday).

5 As they traveled through Virginia, however, John was troubled by what he observed there of the institution of slavery. The work that the slaves performed, and their treatment by their masters, made quite an impression on his mind.

6 “I recall my first acquaintance with the sale of a Negro a few years ago,” he confided to Isaac. “My employer at the time desired me to write him a bill of sale for this woman, and I remember feeling very uneasy about writing an instrument of slavery for one of my fellow creatures” he explained.

7 “Although I executed the task which had been given to me, I told my master that I did not think that slave keeping was consistent with the precepts of the Christian religion.” Isaac was quiet for a moment, and then he said, “I understand what you are saying, but I think that we should be very careful not to offend our hosts.”

8 Nevertheless, at the very next home that hosted them, John was again distressed by what he witnessed there. The master of the house and his family lived very well and performed almost none of the tasks necessary to run the home or the lands which surrounded it. John decided that he simply could not remain silent about what he was observing.

9 “Can I speak privately with you?” he asked the man. “Of course, John, what is on your mind?” “Do you think that the keeping of Negroes as slaves is compatible with the love of Jesus Christ?” he blurted out. “Well,” the man cleared his throat, “I had not given it much thought.”

10 “Perhaps it would be better to treat them with the same mercy and compassion which we hope to enjoy in the Lord?” John suggested. “Does not God help us to shoulder our burdens when they are too heavy?” he pressed. “I will have to give this some thought, John,” the bewildered man offered with a weak smile.

11 John, however, was still troubled by what he had observed in the Southern colonies, and he decided to write a treatise on the subject when he returned to Burlington. Knowing that his intended audience would be unaccustomed to hearing what he had to say, he opened with an appeal for them to be willing to abandon customs and opinions which did not conform to the Lord’s standards. He then proceeded to make the case that the keeping of Negro slaves was one of those customs.

12 He wrote: “The general disadvantage which these poor Africans lie under in an enlightened Christian country has often filled me with sadness, and I think it my duty to offer some thoughts thereon for the consideration of others.” He then proceeded to remind his readers that the Lord had made all nations of one blood, and that we are all subject to the same afflictions and infirmities as humans.

13 He asked his White audience to try to imagine finding themselves in the same circumstances in which many of their Black brethren currently found themselves. “How should I approve of this conduct were I in their circumstance and they in mine?” he asked.

14 Next, he pointed out that the Lord had given to His people specific instructions about how they should treat strangers in their midst. He encouraged his brethren to compare the treatment which Africans received at their hands with the admonitions found in the Old Testament, and he quoted one of those passages to drive home his point. He wrote: “Thou shalt not vex him nor oppress him; he shall be as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself.”

15 John even anticipated some of the arguments that would be employed against his treatise. He realized that some would defend the practice by drawing attention to the fact that they had a considerable amount of money invested in their slaves, but he would not allow that to be employed as a justification for the practice. He wrote: “If I purchase a man who has never forfeited his liberty, he retains his natural right of freedom. Do I then have the right to keep him and his posterity in servitude and ignorance?”

16 He continued: “Whoever rightly advocates the cause of some, thereby promotes the good of all.” In other words, White Christians would experience personal spiritual benefits from taking up the cause of their downtrodden Black brethren. With that, John had effectively transformed his philosophical distaste for the practice of slavery into a moral crusade against the institution that would ultimately benefit all of society.

17 At first, John quietly shared his treatise with a few of his most trusted friends. Then, as he received more and more positive feedback about what he had written, he began to share it with all of the Quakers who lived near him. Finally, in 1754, the Yearly Meeting at Philadelphia approved the publication of John’s treatise under the title of Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes.” It would prove to be the opening salvo from a group of people who would come to be known as abolitionists by later generations.