THE BEAUTIFUL SOUL OF JOHN WOOLMAN, APOSTLE OF ABOLITION

A masterful biography of the Quaker prophet and path-breaking social reformer.

Woolman (1720–72) remains the earliest and most complete American embodiment of the notion of a “social conscience.” In Mount Holly, N.J., he shed a succession of jobs (most notably as a shopkeeper, tailor, schoolteacher and legal functionary) to devote more time to ministering for the Society of Friends, carrying his message throughout the colonies and, by the end of his life, even to England. He was a pacifist and a tax resister, and he preached a doctrine of peace with the Indians, care for the impoverished, kindness to animals and devotion to simplicity. Remembered today primarily for his pioneering anti-slavery stance, Woolman sought in the gentlest possible fashion to convert others to the truth he believed came directly from God. Closely tracking Woolman’s spiritual autobiography, The Journal of John Woolman—remarkably still in print since its 1774 publication—and relying on Woolman’s essays and pamphlets, Slaughter (History/Univ. of Notre Dame; Exploring Lewis and Clark: Reflections on Men and Wilderness, 2003, etc.) beautifully explicates the spiritual growth of this secular saint. The author also applies a thorough knowledge of the period’s philosophical, theological and historical currents to explain a man whose deep religiosity and exquisite sensitivities prevented him from riding a horse (an unnecessary burden to the animal), wearing dyed clothing (a product, even at some remove, of slave labor) or drafting a will that conveyed a slave. So much saintliness might be hard to endure if not for Slaughter’s keen awareness of his subject’s eccentricities and shortcomings: For example, Woolman regularly abandoned his wife and child for his wide-ranging and frequently dangerous itinerant ministry; he deemed harmless sleight of hand and juggling to be “frivolous toying with the universe”; he opposed inoculations against small pox. Nevertheless, by the end of this detailed, well-written consideration of Woolman and his enduring significance, the reader can’t help but share Slaughter’s admiration for his hero’s sincerity, courage, persistence and humility.

Any understanding of the history of social reform in America begins with Woolman, and understanding Woolman begins here.