Reform in Colonial America: John Woolman on Goodness and Greed
Overview: This article surveys the ideas and values of an early American reformer, John Woolman, and explores his wide-ranging critique of injustice in early America. We follow his career from his early experiences of “a feeling sense of the condition of others” as a young man to his adult role as a religious leader and missionary. An heir to the Quaker emphasis on the “inner light,” Woolman developed an acute sense of what he called “the connection of things.” In developments as disparate as the slave-made dye on his neighbor’s clothes and the wretched condition of Indians on the frontier he saw the results of unrestrained greed. Woolman criticized such aspects of colonial society, and he advocated a deeper sense of kinship across racial and economic divides.
1. Introducing John Woolman: Robin, “complicity in the sale,” “divine impulse in himself,” social reformer, charity.
2. Quaker Background: Protestant Reformation, George Fox, “inward light,” physical convulsions, Society of Friends, Northhampton, Quakerism, Pendle Hill, “a great people in white raiment,” meeting in open fields, “hat-honor,” spiritual enlightenment, men and women, divine truth, Quaker imprisonments, William Penn, No Cross No Crown, “a meek and quiet spirit,” West Jersey, Pennsylvania, Frame of Government, Benjamin Franklin (1723), retirement and contentment, worldly persons, “appetite” for “gain” and “cumber,” “scramble” for worldly possessions, Frederick B. Tolles, Meeting House and Counting House, slaveholding, Delaware Valley.
3. Early Life of John Woolman: Deepening religiosity, “inner plantation,” universal love, brute creatures, Mount Holly, “pure opening,” “standing like a trumpet,” shop owner, tailor, Quaker minister, no hierarchy, Quaker gatherings, “calling” to go on trips to other meeting, Southern Quaker slavery, Woolman's visit to slaveholding Quakers, giving money to slaves, Sarah Ellis, Quaker wedding, Fruits of an Active Life, Fruits of Solitude (1682), Union of Soles, Union of Sense, exercise that gift.
4. Indian Mission to Wehaloosing: Delaware Indians, Wehaloosing, “inward drawings,” “awe-full-ness,” Prophet David, frontier warfare, rum, Indian trade, Israel Pemberton, Benjamin Parvin, Indian painting on trees, Indian with a tomahawk, Indian inter-tribal hostilities, two societies, expanding English settlement, “I love to feel where the words come from,” Moravian Missionary, “woman of modest countenance,” Susquehanna River, homeward journey—Indian fellow travelers.
5. Later Years and Woolman’s Legacy: Essay on Some Consideration on the Keeping of Negroes, Plea for the Poor, “seeds of great calamity,” pacifism, revisiting “white raiment,” singular simplicity, accusations of vanity, walking not riding, smallpox, Quaker prohibition of slavery, “abolition environmentalism and social justice,” “Crown thy good with brotherhood.”
Overview: This article surveys the ideas and values of an early American reformer, John Woolman, and explores his wide-ranging critique of injustice in early America. We follow his career from his early experiences of “a feeling sense of the condition of others” as a young man to his adult role as a religious leader and missionary. An heir to the Quaker emphasis on the “inner light,” Woolman developed an acute sense of what he called “the connection of things.” In developments as disparate as the slave-made dye on his neighbor’s clothes and the wretched condition of Indians on the frontier he saw the results of unrestrained greed. Woolman criticized such aspects of colonial society, and he advocated a deeper sense of kinship across racial and economic divides.
1. Introducing John Woolman: Robin, “complicity in the sale,” “divine impulse in himself,” social reformer, charity.
2. Quaker Background: Protestant Reformation, George Fox, “inward light,” physical convulsions, Society of Friends, Northhampton, Quakerism, Pendle Hill, “a great people in white raiment,” meeting in open fields, “hat-honor,” spiritual enlightenment, men and women, divine truth, Quaker imprisonments, William Penn, No Cross No Crown, “a meek and quiet spirit,” West Jersey, Pennsylvania, Frame of Government, Benjamin Franklin (1723), retirement and contentment, worldly persons, “appetite” for “gain” and “cumber,” “scramble” for worldly possessions, Frederick B. Tolles, Meeting House and Counting House, slaveholding, Delaware Valley.
3. Early Life of John Woolman: Deepening religiosity, “inner plantation,” universal love, brute creatures, Mount Holly, “pure opening,” “standing like a trumpet,” shop owner, tailor, Quaker minister, no hierarchy, Quaker gatherings, “calling” to go on trips to other meeting, Southern Quaker slavery, Woolman's visit to slaveholding Quakers, giving money to slaves, Sarah Ellis, Quaker wedding, Fruits of an Active Life, Fruits of Solitude (1682), Union of Soles, Union of Sense, exercise that gift.
4. Indian Mission to Wehaloosing: Delaware Indians, Wehaloosing, “inward drawings,” “awe-full-ness,” Prophet David, frontier warfare, rum, Indian trade, Israel Pemberton, Benjamin Parvin, Indian painting on trees, Indian with a tomahawk, Indian inter-tribal hostilities, two societies, expanding English settlement, “I love to feel where the words come from,” Moravian Missionary, “woman of modest countenance,” Susquehanna River, homeward journey—Indian fellow travelers.
5. Later Years and Woolman’s Legacy: Essay on Some Consideration on the Keeping of Negroes, Plea for the Poor, “seeds of great calamity,” pacifism, revisiting “white raiment,” singular simplicity, accusations of vanity, walking not riding, smallpox, Quaker prohibition of slavery, “abolition environmentalism and social justice,” “Crown thy good with brotherhood.”
