John Woolman
John Woolman (* October 19, 1720 in Northampton, Burlington County, New Jersey; † October 7, 1772 in York, England ) was an American Quaker preacher and vehement opponent of slavery.
Family
John Woolman grew up in a Quaker family. His parents were Samuel Woolman (1690-1755) and Elizabeth Woolman, born Burr ( 1696-1773 ). The great-grandfather John Woolmans, William Woolman (ca. 1632-1692 ) was a native of Painswick in Gloucestershire, England, and apparently emigrated with his parents to New Jersey.
John Woolman married in 1749 in Princeton, New Jersey, Sarah Ellis ( 1721-1781 ).
Life and (of faith ) Certificate
At the age of six years, John Woolman was reading from the Bible in Revelation Chapter 22 (Rev. 22.1 ELB ), which made a deep impression on him. Later Woolman preachers of Quakers, lived from the proceeds as fruit growers and Schneider. He had given up, because it seemed pointless to him to support the trade of sugar, rum and textiles slavery, the trading business. In his preaching tours of his home in the Rancocas - Mount Holly area of the Delaware River from made him to create particularly the needs of blacks.
" It made me a lot of thought that these entrepreneurs supported the importation of slaves only so that she and her children were able to live almost without work. "
1746 began Woolman, due to his experiences in the southern provinces, write down his thoughts in this regard. John Woolman tried henceforth to convince the other Quakers from the shame of the slave trade and possession in his sermons. The Quakers were later especially in England and the U.S. role models in the fight against slavery.
It took a long time to convince the Quakers only surprised by the abolition of slavery. In 1688 sent Pennsylvania German sent a memorandum to the Quakers of Pennsylvania, to hold no more slaves. The slavery supporters among the Quakers was partially argued that slaves were descendants of Cain, and that is why the trade was legitimate with them. Woolman preached against it, as the descendants of Cain had already been addressed by the Flood, in his view.
From 1746 on John Woolman moved by the colonies to preach against military service, unfair taxation and slavery. In 1743 he had refused to issue an invoice for the purchase of a slave to his employer and lost his job. In 1754 he wrote the treatise Some Considerations on Keeping Negroes and spread it on his wanderings, especially in Quäkerkreisen.
" The view that our lives must lead because of our behavior towards the blacks into trouble in some parts of our newly populated mainland America, gave me great concern on this trip. "
1758 banned the annual meeting of the Quakers of Philadelphia to its members the slave trade. 1760 saw Woolman the slave market in Newport (Rhode Iceland ) itself, where many slaves from Guinea arrived. A drafted by him petition to the local legislative body was not sent in deference to his local friends. In Rhode Iceland also head cleric of the Quakers were active in the slave trade. As a result, Woolman fought now both writing against slavery.
Now the Abolitionsbewegung attacked by the friend of the Quakers Jean Brissot, a politician from the Gironde, on to France. Brissot was beheaded there.
Even in 1764 were tolerated in the ranks of the Quaker slave owners, including some who participated in the meetings of the innermost faith community. Among the Quakers a general secularization and neglect was found in spiritual things because of the increasing prosperity.
" Even among the truly pious, there are few who refuse to enjoy the built of this ground products because of the harsh exploitation of persons employed in the West Indies slaves. "
In London Quakers were involved partially and indirectly in the slave trade, by loaded the slave ships in the triangular trade between England, Africa and North America with goods to Africa.
On October 7, 1772 John Woolman died of smallpox in the house of Thomas Priestman in York. Woolman had a lot of traveling and a hard service for the just cause imposed despite his sickly nature.
It is mainly Woolmans merit that the Quakers in 1790 in a petition by the U.S. Congress demanded the abolition of slavery and were subsequently become one of the driving forces of Abolitionismusbewegung. In his work, he led the work of Benjamin Lay, also a Quaker, continued.
Woolman wrote, as for Quakers time not uncommon, a journal, a kind of spiritual autobiography, which, with its descriptions of the colonial society as a historical document, however, is interesting. It has a permanent place as a classic of American literature; so it was about 1909 selected for the first volume of the Harvard Classics.
Works
- For the poor: a call for justice. Quaker -Verlag, Berlin 1931
- Philips P. Moulton (ed.): The Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman. Friend United Press, Richmond, Ind. 1997, ISBN 0-944350-10-0
- A word of remembrance and caution to the rich. London 1898