The Journal of John Woolman

Summary

The Journal of John Woolman is the spiritual autobiography of a New Jersey Quaker tailor and minister, begun in his thirty-sixth year and continued until a few days before his death. He opens in Northampton, Burlington County, where as a child he reads the twenty-second chapter of Revelation by the roadside and, soon after, kills a mother robin with a stone and then her nestlings, an act whose horror teaches him that God has placed in every mind a principle of goodness toward all creatures. He describes a youthful turn toward wanton company, a sickness that brings him to repentance, and work as a clerk in a Mount Holly shop. When his employer asks him to write a bill of sale for an enslaved woman, he does it, then says aloud that slave-keeping is inconsistent with the Christian religion, and afterward declines such work. Later chapters follow his travels as a minister with companions such as Abraham Farrington, Isaac Andrews, Peter Andrews, John Sykes, Samuel Eastburn and John Sleeper, through New Jersey, Long Island and New England and south into Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, where he speaks plainly with slaveholding Friends. He records his marriage to Sarah Ellis in 1749, his father Samuel's death in 1750 with words of concern for the enslaved, and his decision in 1756 to give up a growing shop so as to live free of outward cumbers. He describes the militia draft and the quartering of soldiers at Mount Holly in 1757 and 1758, the Philadelphia Yearly Meetings that moved against slaveholding, the slave trade he witnessed at Newport, and a dangerous journey in 1763 through the wilderness to the Delaware town of Wehaloosing on the Susquehanna, where the leader Papunehang says he loves to feel where words come from. In 1772 he sails for London with Samuel Emlen, choosing the steerage and grieving over the hardships of the sailors, then walks north through the English counties to Yorkshire. The Journal closes with friends' notes of his last illness at York, where he died of smallpox on 7 October 1772. The library text is the Everyman's Library edition (1910) with an introduction by Vida D. Scudder; it reprints the London abridgement printed by James Phillips in 1775, which omits a few passages found in the Philadelphia edition of 1774 and in later editions from the manuscripts, followed by Considerations on Pure Wisdom and Human Policy, On Labour, On Schools, On the Right Use of the Lord's Outward Gifts, Considerations on the True Harmony of Mankind, an Epistle of 1772, Remarks on Sundry Subjects, and the expressions of his last illness.

Plot or Argument

• Testimonies and Advertisement

  The volume opens with the London editors' note explaining that this is an abridgement, a testimony from Friends in Yorkshire describing his last weeks among them, and a testimony from his own Monthly Meeting at Burlington recounting his life and ministry.

• Chapter I: Childhood, conversion and the bill of sale

  Woolman recalls reading Revelation as a boy, killing the robin and her young, his reproof by his father, a period of youthful vanity ended by sickness and repentance, his first speaking in meeting, his clerkship at Mount Holly, and the bill of sale for an enslaved woman that troubled his conscience.

• Chapters II-III: First journeys, trade and marriage

  He travels as a minister into East Jersey, the southern colonies and New England, learns tailoring rather than enlarge his merchandise, records the death of his sister Elizabeth of smallpox, marries Sarah Ellis in 1749, sits with his dying father in 1750, and writes on trade, spirituous liquors and costly apparel.

• Chapter IV: The southern journey of 1757

  Travelling through Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina among people who live on the labour of slaves, he speaks with slaveholders and a militia colonel, insists that liberty is the natural right of all men, and writes an epistle to Friends at New Garden and Cane Creek.

• Chapters V-VI: War, taxes and the Yearly Meeting

  During the French and Indian War he describes the drafting of the Burlington militia, the scruples of young Friends who would not bear arms, his answer to an officer who asked him to quarter soldiers, and the Philadelphia Yearly Meetings of 1758 and 1759 that moved against buying and keeping slaves; he visits slaveholders in Chester County with Daniel Stanton and John Scarborough.

• Chapter VII: New England and Newport

  With Samuel Eastburn he visits Long Island, Rhode Island, Boston and Nantucket in 1760, grieves at the slave trade carried on at Newport, and speaks against lotteries.

• Chapter VIII: Wehaloosing

  After publishing the second part of his Considerations on keeping Negroes, he undertakes in 1763 a journey through the wilderness to the Delaware town of Wehaloosing on the Susquehanna, meets warriors on the path, holds meetings through interpreters, and hears Papunehang's response.

• Chapter IX: True wisdom and later visits

  He reflects on wisdom after hearing of cruelty to captives, visits families at Mount Holly, Mansfield and Burlington and the meetings along the sea coast, and travels to the eastern shore of Maryland with John Sleeper.

• Chapters X-XI: The voyage and England

  In 1772 he sails from Chester with Samuel Emlen, lodges in the steerage among the sailors, writes on the dangers to boys trained to the sea, lands at London for the Yearly Meeting, walks north through several counties, hears of William Hunt's death, and falls ill at York, where friends record his words until his death.

• Other writings

  The remaining pieces gather his essays on pure wisdom and human policy, labour, schools and the right use of outward gifts, his Considerations on the True Harmony of Mankind, an epistle to Friends, Remarks on Sundry Subjects, and a separate record of his expressions in his last illness.

Characters

• John Woolman, author and narrator

  Quaker tailor and minister of Mount Holly who records his inward leadings and his travels in the ministry.

• Samuel Woolman, father

  Farmer who taught his children tenderness toward the poor and all creatures and died in 1750 still concerned for the enslaved.

• Sarah Ellis Woolman, wife

  The well-inclined young woman Woolman married in 1749 and left at home when he sailed for England.

• Elizabeth Woolman, sister

  Woolman's sister, remembered for her kindness to the sick, who died of smallpox at thirty-one.

• Papunehang, Delaware leader at Wehaloosing

  A man zealous for reformation in his town who says he loves to feel where words come from.

• Samuel Emlen, travelling companion

  Philadelphia Friend who sailed with Woolman to London in 1772.

• Samuel Eastburn, Isaac Andrews, Peter Andrews, John Sykes, John Sleeper, companions in the ministry

  Friends who travelled with Woolman on his journeys through the colonies.

• William Hunt, fellow minister

  North Carolina Friend whose death of smallpox at Newcastle Woolman hears of in England.

• Thomas Priestman, host at York

  Friend who, with others, nursed Woolman in his last illness and preserved his words.

Lessons

• A conscience grows by small obediences

  Woolman writes the bill of sale for an enslaved woman because his employer asks, then wishes he had asked to be excused, and the next time he refuses. The Journal shows conscience strengthening through such single choices: refusing a profitable trade, declining to keep quartered soldiers for pay, choosing the steerage. He presents faithfulness in small matters as the training ground for larger witness.

  • What reasons does Woolman give himself for writing the first bill of sale?
  • Why does he think he would have been clearer if he had asked to be excused?
  • Can you think of a small choice that prepares a person for a larger one?

• Speaking plainly in love

  On the southern journey Woolman talks with slaveholding Friends and a militia colonel without anger, using much plainness of speech but in good will. He believes that a hard truth spoken in tenderness may be received, and he often notes that his hearers took it kindly. His method joins candor with humility about his own weakness.

  • How does Woolman answer the colonel who says the enslaved live better in America than in Africa?
  • Why does he pay attention to the spirit in which he speaks, and not only to the words?
  • When is gentleness a strength in persuading someone, and when might it fall short?

• Wealth, wants and the labour of others

  Woolman gives up a growing shop in 1756 because business has become a burden, and he traces luxury and the desire for gain to the hard labour of others, from enslaved field hands to sailors and English labourers. His later essays argue that a plain life frees a person to serve. He measures goods by what they cost the people who produce them.

  • What does Woolman mean when he says he felt a stop in his mind about his trade?
  • Why does he choose the steerage rather than the cabin on the voyage to England?
  • Is it possible to live simply in a prosperous society, and what would it cost?

• Going to learn as well as to teach

  Woolman says love was the first motion of his journey to Wehaloosing: he went that he might feel and understand the life of the Delaware people and perhaps receive some instruction from them. He describes feeling inferior in his own eyes to many among them. The visit models a humble missionary spirit that listens before it speaks.

  • What dangers does Woolman face on the way to Wehaloosing?
  • What does Papunehang mean by loving to feel where words come from?
  • What can a visitor learn from people whose way of life is very different from his own?

Context

Woolman lived in the Quaker provinces of New Jersey and Pennsylvania during the middle decades of the eighteenth century, when many Friends, like their neighbours, held enslaved Africans and the Society had no rule against it. Earlier Friends such as the Germantown protesters of 1688, Benjamin Lay and Ralph Sandiford had written against slavery, and in the 1750s Woolman and Anthony Benezet pressed the question in meetings. The Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in 1758 agreed to exclude from its business those who bought or sold slaves and to visit those who held them, and over the following decades American Friends required members to free their slaves. The French and Indian War, Pontiac's War and the Pennsylvania frontier form the background to his reflections on war taxes, quartering soldiers and his journey to the Delaware people.

Composition

Woolman began the Journal around 1756, in his thirty-sixth year, and kept it until his last weeks in England, writing and revising in several manuscripts. After his death the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's overseers prepared it for the press, and it was published in Philadelphia in 1774 by Joseph Crukshank with some of his essays as The Works of John Woolman. A London edition of 1775, printed by James Phillips, abridged it further; that is the text reprinted in the Everyman's Library edition of 1910 used here, with an introduction by Vida D. Scudder. Later editors, including John Greenleaf Whittier (1871) and Amelia Mott Gummere (1922), restored passages from the manuscripts.

Reception

The Journal has been reprinted continuously since the eighteenth century and is often counted among the classics of Christian devotional writing. Charles Lamb urged readers to get the writings of John Woolman by heart, William Ellery Channing and Whittier praised it, and Charles W. Eliot included it in the Harvard Classics. Historians of the antislavery movement treat Woolman, with Benezet, as a principal figure in persuading American Friends to abandon slaveholding, and readers of many traditions have valued his account of conscience, simplicity and tender regard for all creatures.

Comparisons

• franklin-autobiography-and-poor-richard

  Franklin and Woolman were near contemporaries in the Delaware valley, and Franklin's press printed Quaker antislavery writings; Franklin tells a story of rising through trade, while Woolman tells of deliberately reducing his trade so that his business would not crowd out his ministry.

• walden

  Both books argue for a simplified life that frees the soul, but Thoreau's experiment at the pond is philosophical and solitary, while Woolman's plainness grows from Quaker worship and from concern for the labourers whose toil supplies luxuries.

• confessions

  Augustine and Woolman both write autobiography as an account of God's dealings with the soul, from boyhood faults through conversion; Augustine's stolen pears and Woolman's killed robin are parallel childhood scenes of remorse.

• grace-abounding

  Bunyan's spiritual autobiography and Woolman's Journal both record inward trials and leadings in plain English, though Bunyan's is a drama of terror and assurance and Woolman's a quiet record of resignation and obedience.

• narrative-and-fourth-of-july

  Douglass writes against slavery from inside it as a man who escaped; Woolman writes from among slaveholding neighbours and fellow believers, seeking to persuade them by conscience and Scripture.

• practice-of-the-presence-of-god

  Brother Lawrence's conversations and letters, like Woolman's Journal, describe a life of constant inward attention to God carried on in ordinary work.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The robin in Chapter I and every later passage where Woolman speaks of tenderness toward creatures.
• The bill of sale at the end of Chapter I and how Woolman's answer changes the second time he is asked.
• How often Woolman says a matter rested on his mind, or that he did or did not feel easy about it, before he acts.
• The journey to Wehaloosing in Chapter VIII and what Woolman hopes to learn there.
• The steerage voyage and the last illness at York in Chapters X and XI.

Key terms and names

Society of Friends

The Christian body begun by George Fox in seventeenth-century England, also called Quakers, who worship in silence until moved to speak.

Concern

A Quaker word for a strong inward leading to undertake some service, such as a journey or a message.

Monthly Meeting

The local body of Friends that recorded members, approved ministers and gave certificates for travel.

Yearly Meeting

The annual gathering of Friends from a region, such as Philadelphia, that set common practice for its members.

Certificate

A letter from a Monthly Meeting approving a minister's journey, which Woolman obtained before each visit.

First Day, Eighth Month

The Quaker way of naming days and months by number to avoid names drawn from pagan gods.

Steerage

The crowded lower part of a ship where common sailors and poorer passengers lodged, which Woolman chose over the cabin.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What happens when Woolman's employer asks him to write a bill of sale, and what does Woolman say?
2. Comprehension Why does Woolman give up his shop in 1756, and how does he support himself afterward?
3. Comprehension What hardships does Woolman see among the sailors on the voyage to England?
4. Interpretation Why does Woolman tell the story of the robin at the start of his Journal?
5. Interpretation How does Woolman decide when to act, and what role does waiting play in his decisions?
6. Interpretation What does the journey to Wehaloosing show about how Woolman understood his ministry?
7. Big Question How far is a Christian responsible for the hidden costs, borne by other people, of the things he buys and uses?
8. Big Question Is quiet persuasion within a community more powerful than public protest, or less?

Faith Connections

• Proverbs 12:10 (Scripture)

  Woolman quotes this proverb, the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel, after killing the robin's nestlings, and the verse's first half, that a righteous man regards the life of his beast, describes the tenderness he learned.

• Acts 17:26 (Scripture)

  Paul teaches that God made of one blood all nations of men. Woolman's conviction that liberty is the natural right of all men equally rests on this kind of Scriptural claim to a common humanity.

• 1 Timothy 6:6-10 (Scripture)

  Paul calls godliness with contentment great gain and the love of money a root of evil. Woolman's laying down of his merchandise and his steerage passage put this teaching into practice.

• 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (Scripture)

  When a nurse at York asks what she should do, the dying Woolman answers, Rejoice evermore, and in every thing give thanks, adding that this is sometimes hard to come at.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: God has placed in every heart a principle of love toward all creatures, and those who attend to it become tender and see clearly. Holding people as slaves, seeking luxury and waging war spring from a love of gain that shuts the heart. Therefore Woolman argues that Christians must examine the hidden sources of their comforts and live plainly, so that pure universal love may shine through all their dealings.

Rhetorical device: understatement. Woolman rarely raises his voice: after writing the bill of sale he says only that he should have been clearer if he had asked to be excused, and the restraint makes the confession more searching than denunciation would.

Debate: Resolved: that Woolman was right to refuse profitable trade and comfort when he believed others' hardship supplied them.

Memory Work

hath placed a Principle in the human Mind, which incites to exercise Goodness towards every living Creature

I love to feel where Words come from.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Woolman's witness against slavery grew through a series of personal decisions over many years. Using at least three episodes from the Journal, explain how his conscience developed and what he believed should guide it.

Comparison with Autobiography and Poor Richard's Almanack: Compare how Franklin and Woolman each understand work, trade and money, and what each believes a good life in eighteenth-century Pennsylvania and New Jersey requires.

Medical Lens

Smallpox frames the Journal: Woolman's sister Elizabeth dies of it at thirty-one, his fellow minister William Hunt dies of it at Newcastle, and Woolman himself contracts it at York in September 1772 and dies on 7 October. The friends' minutes of his last illness give a day-by-day lay record of the disease as they saw it: his complaint that it affected his head so that he could think only as a child, sleeplessness, failed medicines to settle his stomach, a throat so affected that he had to write rather than speak, and his questions to the apothecary about whether his body could throw off such a load of matter. His willingness to take medicine only if it did not come through defiled channels, a phrase Scudder's introduction quotes from the fuller text, shows his ethics reaching even to treatment. Elsewhere he records his father's death of a fever, a youthful sickness that brought him to repentance, the cramped air of the ship's steerage that made breathing difficult at night, and the sickness of poultry at sea. These are devotional observations, not clinical history.

• Journal, Chapter II

  The account of his sister Elizabeth, her care for the sick, and her death of smallpox.

  Fever Infection Nursing Caregiving
• Journal, Chapter III

  Woolman watches by night with his father, dying of a fever in 1750, who speaks of his concern for the enslaved.

  Death Dying Nursing Caregiving
• Journal, Chapter X

  In the crowded steerage he finds breathing difficult and stands near the hatchway at midnight for fresh air, and observes the sailors' wet and close quarters.

  Public Health Sanitation
• Journal, Chapter XI (closing minutes)

  Friends at York record the progress of his smallpox, his prayers, the attempts at medicine, his talk with the apothecary and his death.

  Fever Infection Plague Epidemic Death Dying

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Trace Woolman's journeys on a map of the colonies and England, marking each place with the year and the concern that took him there.

• Essay

  Woolman measures goods by the labour of the people who make them. Choose one ordinary object you use and write about the people whose work brought it to you.

• Dialogue

  Write the conversation on the Virginia road between Woolman and the militia colonel, keeping both men's arguments in their own terms.

• Fiction

  Write a sailor's account of the quiet passenger from America who chose to sleep in the steerage on the voyage to London in 1772.

Further Reading

• The Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman, Phillips P. Moulton (ed.)

  A modern critical edition based on the manuscripts.

• The Journal and Essays of John Woolman, Amelia Mott Gummere (ed.)

  The 1922 edition with a biographical introduction.

• John Woolman's Path to the Peaceable Kingdom: A Quaker in the British Empire, Geoffrey Plank

• The Beautiful Soul of John Woolman, Apostle of Abolition, Thomas P. Slaughter