WOOLMAN. 



away, and perifh miferably. I then went on my errand, but 

 for fome hours could think of little elfe but the cruelties I 

 had committed, and was much troubled. Thus He, whofe 

 tender mercies are over all his works, hath placed a principle 

 in the human mind, which incites to exercife goodnefs towards 

 every living creature : and this being fingly attended to, 

 people become tender-hearted and fympathifing, but being 

 frequently and totally rejedled, the mind becomes (hut up in 

 .a contrary difpofition." Of his opinions at one-andtwenty 

 he writes thus : " I was early convinced in mind that true 

 religion confifted in an inward life, wherein the heart doth 

 love and reverence God the Creator, and learns to exercife 

 true juftice and goodnefs, not only toward all men, but alfo 

 toward the brute creatures. I found no narrownefs re- 

 fpefting fefts and opinions, but believed that fincere, upright- 

 hearted people in every fociety, who truly loved God, were 

 accepted of him." 



The right of every individual, of whatever colour, who 

 has not offended againft fociety, to liberty and the common 

 gifts of providence, was confequently at this time an article 

 of John Woolman's religious creed: and we (hall fee that he 

 foon brought himfelf to aft in confiftency with his faith. 

 The firft occalion of trial occurred while he was yet in fervi- 

 tude ; for he had engaged himfelf as clerk and afllllant to a 

 (hop-keeper at a place called Mount-Holly. His employer 

 parted with a negrefs, and dcfired Woolman to write out a 

 bill of fale for her. " The thing," fays he, " was fudden, 

 and although the thought of writing an inftrument of flavery 

 for one of my fellow-creatures felt uneafy, yet I remem- 

 bered that I was hired by the year, that it was my mafter 

 >ho direfted me to do it, and that it was an elderly man, a 

 Inember of our fociety, who bought her. So through 

 weaknefs I gave way and wrote ; but at the execution of it 

 I was fo afflifted in my mind, that I faid before my mafter 

 and the friend, that I believed flave-keeping to be a praftice 

 ' inconfiftent with the Chriftian religion.' This in fome degree 

 abated my uneafinefs j yet as often as I reflefted feriourty 

 upon it, I thought I (hould have been clearer if I had de- 

 fired to be excufed from it, • as a thing againft my con- 

 fcience :' for fuch it was." Accordingly, on the next occa- 

 fion he took this fecond ftep. " A young man of our fo- 

 ciety," he proceeds, " fpoke to me to write a conveyance of a 

 idave to him, he having lately taken a negro into his houfe. 

 il told him I was not eafy to write it : for though many of 

 pur meeting and in other places kept (laves, I ftiU believed 

 the praftice was not right." Other cafes followed, in 

 which being employed {as it appears for an adequate fee) 

 to write the will of a neighbour or a friend, he uniformly 

 refufed to be acceffary to their bequeathing as property the 

 iperfons of his fellow-men. " Deep-rooted cuftoms," he 

 lObferves, " though wrong, are not eafily altered ; but it is 

 the duty of all to be ' firm in that' which they certainly 

 know is ' right for them.' A charitable benevolent man, 

 well acquainted with a negro, may, I believe, under fome 

 jcircumftances, keep him in his family as a fervant for no 

 lOther motive than the negro's good. But man, as man, knows 

 jnot what fhall be after him, nor hath alFuranee that his 

 ;children will attain to that perfeAion in wifdom and good- 

 nefs neceifary rightly to exercife fuch power," wz. as that 

 ,3f the owner over his (lave. As the iirft -fruits of this firm- 

 Inefs, and which no doubt were highly grateful, he relates 

 inftances in which his refufal, and the reafons he gave for it, 

 '.procured the freedom in lieu of the tranfmiflion of the (laves 

 |ln queftion. 



Having been acknowledged by his friends in the capacity 

 if a minifter of the gofpel, he made fome journies in the ex- 

 jircife of his gift, which ferved to give him a further infight 



into the condition of the negroes on that continent, and 

 lurther excited his attention to the then pradice of the fo- 

 ciety of friends, in common with others, of holding them 

 m bondage, and even of buying them. In the year 1746 

 he palTtd through Virginia, Maryland, and Carohna, of 

 which he writes as follows : " Two things were remarkable 

 to me in this journey : firft, in regard to my entertainment, 

 when I ate, drank, and lodged at free-coft with people who 

 lived in eafe on the hard labour of their Haves, I felt uneafy ; 

 and as my mind was inward to the Lord, I found, from 

 place to place, this uneafinefs return upon me at times 

 through the whole vifit. Where the matters bore a good 

 (hare of the burthen, and lived frugally, fo that their fer- 

 vants were well provided for, and their labour moderate, I 

 felt more eafy ; but where they lived in a coftly way, and 

 laid heavy burthens on their (laves, my exercife (trouble of 

 mind ) was often great, and I frequently had converfation 

 with them in private concerning it. Secondly, this trade of 

 importing flaves from their native country being much en- 

 couraged among them, and the white people and their chil- 

 dren lo generally living without much labour, was frequently 

 the fubjeft of my ferious thoughts. And I faw in thefe 

 fouthern provinces fo many vices and corruptions, increafed 

 by this trade and this way of life, that it appeared to me « ae 

 a gloom over the land ;' and though now many willingly run 

 into it, yet in future the confequence will be grievous to 

 pofterity. I exprefs it as it hath appeared to me, not once 

 nor twice, but as a matter fixed on my mind." 



It is probable that the inhabitants of the fouthern pro- 

 vinces of North America now fee pretty clearly that their 

 negro population, without confummate prudence, as well as 

 great kindnefs in the management of them, are hkely one 

 day to jullify thefe anticipations. 



On his return from the above-mentioned journey, he com- 

 mitted to paper his fentiments on flave-keeping, and after the 

 MS. had lain long by him, it was publilhed, vnth the appro- 

 bation and at the expence of his friends, who began (in 

 Pennfylvania and the Jerfeys at leaft) to be more generally 

 influenced by the humane and Chriftian views of Woolman, 

 Benezet, and others on this fubjeft. It was entitled 

 " Some Confiderations en the keeping of Negroes ;" and in 

 1762 was followed by 3 " Second Part," the expence of 

 which he preferred to take upon himfelf, for a reafon which 

 evinces his ftrift regard to juftice. He confidered that 

 many, who did not yet fee the evil of the praftice, nor 

 approve of his writings againft it, were contributors to the 

 general fund of the fociety, out of which the caufe was pro- 

 pofed to be defrayed. 



Some other refleftions, written in 1757, while h'e was on 

 a journey among flave -holders, and recorded in his " Me- 

 moir," are forcibly defcriptive of his views and feelings. 



The neceffary brevity of this article will permit only 3 

 general account of John Woolman's labours in the caufe 

 of humanity. From private conferences with the holders of 

 (laves, he proceeded to public addreffes to the fociety in 

 their meetings for difcipline : and when at length the prin- 

 ciple of the unlawfulnefs to Chriftians of this degrading- 

 pra6lice had been generally recognized among them, he 

 united other members with himfelf in paying vjflts to fuch 

 of the fociety, within his fphere of action, as required the 

 ftimulus of remonftrances to induce them to comply with the 

 fenfe of their brethren on this fubjeft. Thefe proceedings 

 were profecuted through feveral journies ; in which at one 

 time the religious welfare in a more general fenfe, at another 

 the right conduft in this particular of his fellow -members^ 

 engaged his attention. He did not live to fee the comple- 

 tion of his wilh as it related to the fociety ; for it was not 



till 



