John Woolman
JOHN WOOLMAN: THE STORY OF A QUAKER CONSCIENCE
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[This document is from a pamphlet printed several decades ago bythe Religious Education Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. It was originally published by Walter and Mildred Kahoe. I have made minor changes for clarity; material in brackets is mine. -- George Amoss]
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John Woolman was born in 1720 on the family farm on Rancocas Creek in New Jersey. He went to school with the other Quaker children and with Indian children in a schoolhouse twenty feet square.
John's father, Samuel Woolman, was a farmer, but John, when he had finished his schooling and had worked for several years on the family farm, found a place clerking in a little store in Mount Holly. He also learned the tailor's craft. He did think of studying law but decided to remain a clerk and a tailor. Since he was a good and careful writer, he was often asked to draw up important documents for his employer and others.
John Woolman soon found that his conscience would not let him write a bill of sale for a slave. On the first occasion this happened, John did write the bill of sale, since the slave wasgoing to an elderly Friend who would treat her kindly. He satisfied his conscience by telling the seller and Friend that he felt they were following a practice "inconsistent with the Christian religion." On another occasion, Woolman writes in his Journal, "a neighbor received a bad bruise on his body and sent for me to bleed him, which having done he desired me to write his will. I took notes, and among other things he told me to which of his children he gave his young Negro. I considered the pain and distress he was in and knew not how it would end, so I wrote his will save only that part concerning his slave, and, carrying it to his bedside, read it to him. I then told him in a friendly way that I could not write any instruments by which my fellow creatures were made
________________________________________
[This document is from a pamphlet printed several decades ago bythe Religious Education Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. It was originally published by Walter and Mildred Kahoe. I have made minor changes for clarity; material in brackets is mine. -- George Amoss]
________________________________________
John Woolman was born in 1720 on the family farm on Rancocas Creek in New Jersey. He went to school with the other Quaker children and with Indian children in a schoolhouse twenty feet square.
John's father, Samuel Woolman, was a farmer, but John, when he had finished his schooling and had worked for several years on the family farm, found a place clerking in a little store in Mount Holly. He also learned the tailor's craft. He did think of studying law but decided to remain a clerk and a tailor. Since he was a good and careful writer, he was often asked to draw up important documents for his employer and others.
John Woolman soon found that his conscience would not let him write a bill of sale for a slave. On the first occasion this happened, John did write the bill of sale, since the slave wasgoing to an elderly Friend who would treat her kindly. He satisfied his conscience by telling the seller and Friend that he felt they were following a practice "inconsistent with the Christian religion." On another occasion, Woolman writes in his Journal, "a neighbor received a bad bruise on his body and sent for me to bleed him, which having done he desired me to write his will. I took notes, and among other things he told me to which of his children he gave his young Negro. I considered the pain and distress he was in and knew not how it would end, so I wrote his will save only that part concerning his slave, and, carrying it to his bedside, read it to him. I then told him in a friendly way that I could not write any instruments by which my fellow creatures were made