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- Herausgeber: DigiCat
- Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
- Sprache: Englisch
In "The Journal of John Woolman," readers are invited into the introspective world of an 18th-century Quaker abolitionist. The book is a poignant and reflective exploration of Woolman's spiritual journey and his ethical concerns regarding slavery, consumerism, and social justice. Written in a style that blends personal narrative with theological musings, Woolman's journal stands out within the literary context of Enlightenment thought, demonstrating a unique amalgamation of personal conviction and urgent social critique that resonates throughout the ages. Woolman's eloquent prose and deep moral insights create a compelling narrative that not only documents his life but also serves as a moral compass for future generations. John Woolman (1720–1772) was a notable American Quaker whose life was committed to peace, integrity, and social reform. Growing up in New Jersey, he was deeply influenced by the Quaker faith and the social injustices he encountered in a slave-holding society. Woolman's writings reflect his deep empathy and moral reasoning, and his commitment to advocating for the marginalized and oppressed was revolutionary for his time, making him a significant figure in American moral philosophy. This journal is an essential read for anyone interested in the intersections of faith, ethics, and activism, enriching their understanding of the historical roots of social justice movements. Woolman's earnest reflections encourage readers to consider their own values and the impact of their choices in a complex world, making it a timeless resource for moral introspection and inspiration. In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience: - A comprehensive Introduction outlines these selected works' unifying features, themes, or stylistic evolutions. - A Historical Context section situates the works in their broader era—social currents, cultural trends, and key events that underpin their creation. - A concise Synopsis (Selection) offers an accessible overview of the included texts, helping readers navigate plotlines and main ideas without revealing critical twists. - A unified Analysis examines recurring motifs and stylistic hallmarks across the collection, tying the stories together while spotlighting the different work's strengths. - Reflection questions inspire deeper contemplation of the author's overarching message, inviting readers to draw connections among different texts and relate them to modern contexts. - Lastly, our hand‐picked Memorable Quotes distill pivotal lines and turning points, serving as touchstones for the collection's central themes.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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The Journal of John Woolman
Table of Contents
Introduction
This single-author collection gathers the principal writings of the Quaker minister John Woolman under the comprehensive title The Journal of John Woolman. It presents the spiritual autobiography alongside companion pieces that framed his public ministry and private discernment. Readers will find the Journal with its sequential chapters, the memorial testimonies of contemporaries, and a suite of essays, epistles, and reflections that extend the concerns articulated in the life narrative. The purpose is not to annotate but to assemble, so that Woolman’s own voice—plain, searching, and pastoral—can be encountered in its integrity, while related documents clarify reception and context.
Across the volume, several text types appear. The central diary, A Journal of the Life and Travels of John Woolman, unfolds in numbered chapters. Testimony pieces by Friends in Yorkshire and by a Monthly-Meeting of Friends offer brief biographical notices and spiritual evaluations. The Last Epistle and Other Writings gathers letters and shorter counsel. Essays such as Considerations on Pure Wisdom and Human Policy, On Labour, On Schools, On the Right Use of the Lord’s Outward Gifts, and Considerations on the True Harmony of Mankind set forth arguments and advices. Remarks on Sundry Subjects and prefatory introductions round out the collection.
Taken together, these texts display a coherent ministry marked by simplicity, tenderness of conscience, and painstaking attention to the inward guide. Woolman’s style is plain yet luminous, favoring close moral reasoning, careful description, and an unadorned cadence shaped by Scripture and Quaker speech. Unifying themes recur: the call to peace, the witness against slavery, the scrutiny of wealth and consumption, the dignity of labor, compassionate care for the poor, and the search for social harmony grounded in divine wisdom. Throughout, personal experience is offered not for curiosity, but as a transparent medium through which principles are tried and charity is strengthened.
The Journal—subtitled a record of life and travels in the service of the Gospel—traces Woolman’s movements among Meetings and communities, and the growth of his religious concern. Its chapters follow the course of his visits, reflections, and inward exercises, joining external events to the work of conscience. The focus rests less on incident than on discernment: how a Friend tests a leading, seeks unity, and proceeds with meekness. Readers therefore encounter a spiritual autobiography shaped by travel, correspondence, and ministry, in which the texture of daily obedience gradually reveals the scale of the commitments that ordered his life.
The essays collected here take up recurring questions in practical divinity and social order. Considerations on Pure Wisdom and Human Policy contrasts prudence informed by the inward light with expedients detached from moral truth. On Labour examines work as a sphere of stewardship and equity. On Schools reflects on learning as formation toward piety and usefulness. On the Right Use of the Lord’s Outward Gifts addresses possession and distribution. Considerations on the True Harmony of Mankind proposes conditions for concord among peoples. In each case Woolman reasons steadily from principle to conduct, inviting readers to weigh consequences and align practice.
Complementing these treatises are epistles and shorter pieces written for the care of meetings and individuals. An Epistle to the Quarterly and Monthly Meetings of Friends and related communications exemplify pastoral counsel expressed with humility and firmness. Remarks on Sundry Subjects gathers concise observations on practical and spiritual matters. Some Expressions of John Woolman in His Last Illness preserves brief sayings noted by those who attended him. The testimonies by Friends in Yorkshire and by a Monthly-Meeting of Friends, though not authored by Woolman, remain essential witnesses to his character, travels, and final days, and help readers situate the Journal historically.
The continuing significance of Woolman’s work lies in its union of spiritual tenderness with rigorous social conscience. The Journal has long been esteemed as a classic of American religious writing, while his essays aided formation within the Religious Society of Friends, especially in movements for peace, simplicity, and the abolition of slavery. Without recourse to ornament, he addressed the moral economy of everyday life—how we labor, learn, purchase, govern, and care. This collection presents those materials together, with their original titles and headings, so that readers may follow the steady arc of conviction and charity from inward motion to outward act.
Historical Context
John Woolman’s Journal and associated writings emerged from the transatlantic Quaker world of the eighteenth century, centered in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Britain. Born in 1720 near Mount Holly, New Jersey, Woolman matured as Friends navigated rapid colonial growth, expanding markets, and intensifying moral discipline. Quaker meetings—monthly, quarterly, and yearly—provided the structures that shaped his ministry and preserved testimonies about his life. The collection’s memorials and epistles reflect the communal record-keeping practices of Friends, who valued accountability and discernment. As a traveling minister, Woolman documented spiritual leadings alongside observations of social conditions, giving his Journal a distinctive blend of devotion, reportage, and reformist concern.
Central to the collection is Woolman’s sustained witness against slavery within an economy increasingly dependent on enslaved labor in the Caribbean and mainland colonies. He refused to draft bills of sale for enslaved people as a young clerk and urged Friends to free those they held. His labors contributed to pivotal Quaker decisions: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s 1758 minute forcefully discouraged the slave trade and commerce in its products, and by 1776 it treated slaveholding as grounds for disownment. Fellow reformers such as Anthony Benezet amplified these efforts in print. The Journal records visits to slaveholding households, where Woolman sought persuasion rather than public denunciation.
Woolman’s peace testimony took shape amid the Seven Years’ War (1754–1763) and subsequent frontier conflicts, when militarization, taxation, and displacement strained colonial society. As Pennsylvania’s Quaker political influence waned under wartime pressures, he emphasized conscientious objection and relief for the afflicted. In 1763 he visited the Lenape community at Wyalusing on the Susquehanna, advocating trust and mutual respect during volatile times sometimes termed Pontiac’s War. His reflections on harmony and righteous government, echoed in essays such as Considerations on Pure Wisdom and Human Policy within this collection, reject coercive policy and celebrate patient, local reconciliation. These experiences tied spiritual obedience to practical peacemaking, challenging prevailing colonial strategies of control.
The mid-eighteenth-century consumer revolution also deeply informed Woolman’s ethics. Expanding Atlantic trade brought sugar, rum, dyes, and textiles—often produced by enslaved or coerced labor—into ordinary households. Woolman questioned the moral costs embedded in such goods, adopting plain dress, avoiding dyed fabrics, and reducing consumption to minimize complicity. Essays here, including those on labour and the right use of outward gifts, argue for a moral economy grounded in sufficiency, fair wages, and humility. His critique anticipated later boycotts and reform movements by linking personal choices to structural injustice, while urging Friends to align economic habits with spiritual convictions and communal care.
Within Quaker practice, itinerant ministers traveled with meeting certificates, relying on hospitality and mutual accountability. Woolman’s Journal follows this pattern through journeys in the 1740s–1760s across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, and later to Britain. He often walked rather than used stagecoaches, concerned both for simplicity and for the treatment of animals and workers. Encounters with slaveholding Friends in the Chesapeake and Carolinas shaped his patient, exhortatory mode. The Journal’s chapters mirror the rhythms of visits, meetings, and private counsel, revealing how Quaker communal discernment, rather than solitary authorship, underwrote his interventions in domestic, economic, and pastoral spheres.
The collection’s educational writings arise from debates over schooling in a period when literacy spread with print culture and evangelical renewal. Quaker schools multiplied to sustain scripture reading, honest employments, and disciplined habits, even as Friends resisted ostentation in learning. Woolman’s essay on schools advocates tender treatment of children, practical instruction, and careful oversight of teachers, echoing concerns shared by reformers like Anthony Benezet in Philadelphia. His emphasis on useful knowledge, moral formation, and accessibility linked education to the alleviation of poverty and the prevention of exploitation, positioning schools as instruments for cultivating inward virtue and outward equity.
Woolman’s final journey, begun in 1772, carried him to Britain, where he visited Friends in London and northern England, continuing to speak on slavery and simplicity. Falling ill with smallpox, he died on 7 October 1772 in York. In keeping with Quaker custom, British Friends recorded a testimony to his life, while his home meeting in New Jersey offered its own memorial. The Last Epistle and the tender expressions from his illness capture both urgency and resignation. These documents not only chronicle an ending but also demonstrate how eighteenth-century Friends transformed private experiences into communal moral exemplars, sustaining reform beyond the minister’s lifetime.
Published posthumously in 1774, the Journal circulated first among Friends and soon reached wider audiences in Britain and North America. Its plain style and moral clarity resonated during an age of imperial crisis, when debates about liberty, conscience, and commerce intensified. The work bolstered Quaker abolitionism and influenced non-Quaker reformers; nineteenth-century writers such as Charles Lamb and John Greenleaf Whittier praised its candor and charity. As antislavery campaigns gathered strength on both sides of the Atlantic, Woolman’s integration of spiritual discipline, economic critique, and pastoral care offered a model of principled engagement that shaped the collection’s continuing reputation and authority.
Synopsis (Selection)
Memorial Testimonies by Friends (Yorkshire and Monthly-Meeting)
These posthumous testimonies from Quaker bodies commend Woolman’s life and ministry, presenting him as an exemplar of plain living, tender conscience, and steadfast charity.
They set a reverent communal frame that foregrounds recurring motifs—anti-slavery conviction, peaceable conduct, simplicity, and spiritual humility—echoed throughout the collection.
A Journal of the Life and Travels of John Woolman (Chs. I–XI)
This autobiographical record follows Woolman’s inner leadings and itinerant ministry across communities, filtering daily encounters through Quaker discipline and self-scrutiny.
In spare, reflective prose it intertwines observation with moral discernment, persistently addressing slavery, economic excess, simplicity, and compassionate witness.
The Last Epistle & Ethical Essays (with Introduction: Pure Wisdom and Human Policy; On Labour; On Schools; On the Right Use of the Lord's Outward Gifts)
Framed by an introduction, the final epistle offers parting counsel that urges vigilance of conscience, unity among Friends, and freedom from worldly entanglements.
The accompanying concise essays, calm and practical in tone, contrast divine wisdom with worldly policy and advocate honest industry, equitable education, and faithful stewardship of material goods.
Considerations on the True Harmony of Mankind (Introduction; Chs. I–IV)
This extended treatise contends that social concord rests on purified motives and just relations rather than coercion or profit, unfolding its case through a measured, orderly structure.
Marked by a shift toward systematic reasoning, it joins personal piety to civic equity and peace, refining themes of simplicity, conscience, and communal care.
Epistles to Friends (to Quarterly and Monthly Meetings; 'An Epistle, &c.')
Addressed to organizational meetings, these letters exhort communities toward disciplined worship, care for the vulnerable, and consistency between profession and practice.
Direct yet tender in style, they strengthen Woolman’s recurring call for corporate accountability and gentle reform grounded in inward guidance.
Remarks on Sundry Subjects (Chs. I–III)
These brief topical pieces apply spiritual principles to everyday conduct and commerce, testing outward actions by the inward light.
Aphoristic and probing, they distill Woolman’s plain style and ethical focus into compact counsel.
Some Expressions of John Woolman in His Last Illness (and 'Some Expressions, &c.')
Short utterances recorded near the end of Woolman’s life convey serene resignation, charity, and steadfast concern for the prosperity of truth.
Their quiet clarity recapitulates the collection’s signatures—simplicity, compassion, and peace—now voiced with valedictory calm.
The Journal of John Woolman
THE TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS IN YORKSHIRE
At their Quarterly-meeting held at York, the 24th and 25th of the third Month 1773, concerning
JOHN WOOLMAN
Of Mount-Holly, in the Province of New-Jersey, in America; who departed this Life at the House of our Friend, Thomas Priestman, in the Suburbs of this City, the 7th of the tenth month 1772, and was interred in the Burying-ground of Friends, the 9th of the same, aged about fifty-two Years
This our valuable Friend, having been under a religious Engagement for some Time to visit Friends in this Nation, and more especially us in the northern Parts, undertook the same in full Concurrence and near Sympathy with his Friends and Brethren at home, as appeared by Certificates from the monthly and quarterly Meetings to which he belonged, and from the Spring-meeting of Ministers and Elders, held at Philadelphia for Pennsylvania and New-Jersey.
He arrived in the City of London the beginning of the last Yearly-meeting, and, after attending that Meeting, travelled northward, visiting the Quarterly-meetings of Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, and Worcestershire, and divers particular Meetings in his Way.
He visited many Meetings on the West Side of this County; also some in Lancashire and Westmorland; from whence he came to our Quarterly-meeting in the last ninth Month; and though much out of Health, yet was enabled to attend all the Sittings of that Meeting except the last.
His Disorder, then, which proved the Small-pox, increased speedily upon him, and was very afflicting; under which he was supported in much Meekness, Patience, and Christian Fortitude. To those who attended him in his Illness his Mind appeared to be centered in divine Love; under the precious Influence whereof, we believe, he finished his Course, and entered into the Mansions of everlasting Rest.
In the early Part of his Illness he requested a Friend to write, and he broke forth thus:
"O Lord, my God! the amazing Horrors of Darkness were gathered around me and covered me all over, and I saw no Way to go forth: I felt the Misery of my Fellow-creatures separated from the divine Harmony, and it was heavier than I could bear, and I was crushed down under it: I lifted up my Hand, and stretched out my Arm, but there was none to help me: I looked round about, and was amazed: In the Depths of Misery, O Lord! I remembered that thou art omnipotent; that I had called thee Father; and I felt that I loved thee, and I was made quiet in thy Will, and I waited for Deliverance from thee; thou hadst Pity upon me when no Man could help me: I saw that Meekness under suffering was shewed to us in the most affecting Example of thy Son, and thou wast teaching me to follow him, and I said, Thy Will, O Father, be done."
Many more of his weighty Expressions might have been inserted here, but it was deemed unnecessary, they being already published in Print.
He was a Man endued with a large natural Capacity; and, being obedient to the Manifestations of divine Grace, having in Patience and Humility endured many deep Baptisms, he became thereby sanctified and fitted for the Lord's Work, and was truly serviceable in his Church: Dwelling in awful Fear and Watchfulness, he was careful, in his public Appearances, to feel the putting forth of the divine Hand, so that the Spring of the Gospel-ministry often flowed through him with great Sweetness and Purity, as a refreshing Stream to the weary Travellers toward the City of God: Skilful in dividing the Word, he was furnished by Him, in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge, to communicate freely to the several States of the People where his Lot was cast. His Conduct at other Times was seasoned with the like watchful Circumspection and Attention to the Guidance of divine Wisdom, which rendered his whole Conversation uniformly edifying.
He was fully perswaded that as the Life of Christ comes to reign in the Earth, all Abuse and unnecessary Oppression, both of the human and brute Creation, will come to an End; but, under the Sense of a deep Revolt and overflowing Stream of Unrighteousness, his Life has been often a Life of mourning.
He was deeply concerned on account of that inhuman and iniquitous Practice of making Slaves of the People of Africa, or holding them in that State; and, on that Account, we understand he hath not only written some Books, but travelled much on the Continent of America, in order to make the Negro-masters (especially those in Profession with us) sensible of the evil of such a Practice; and though, in his Journey to England, he was far removed from the outward Sight of their Sufferings, yet his deep Exercise of Mind remained, as appears by a short Treatise he wrote in this Journey, and his frequent Concern to open the miserable State of this deeply-injured People. His Testimony in the last Meeting he attended was on this Subject; wherein he remarked, that as we, as a Society, when under outward Sufferings, had often found it our Concern to lay them before those in Authority, and thereby, in the Lord's Time, had obtained Relief, so he recommended this oppressed Part of the Creation to our Notice, that we may, as way may open, represent their Sufferings, in an Individual, if not a Society Capacity, to those in Authority.
Deeply sensible that the Desire to gratify People's Inclinations in Luxury and Superfluities is the principal Ground of Oppression, and the Occasion of many unnecessary Wants, he believed it to be his Duty to be a Pattern of great Self-denial with Respect to the Things of this Life, and earnestly to labour with Friends in the Meekness of Wisdom, to impress on their Minds the great Importance of our Testimony in these Things, recommending to the Guidance of the blessed Truth in this and all other Concerns, and cautioning such as are experienced therein against contenting themselves with acting up to the Standard of others, but to be careful to make the Standard of Truth, manifested to them, the Measure of their Obedience; for, said he, "that Purity of Life which proceeds from Faithfulness in following the Spirit of Truth, that State where our Minds are devoted to serve God, and all our Wants are bounded by his Wisdom,—this Habitation has often been opened before me, as a Place of retirement for the Children of the Light, where they may stand separated from that which disordereth and confuseth the Affairs of Society, and where we may have a Testimony of our Innocence in the Hearts of those who behold us."
We conclude with fervent Desires that we, as a People, may thus, by our Example, promote the Lord's Work in the Earth; and, our Hearts being prepared, may unite in Prayer to the great Lord of the Harvest, that as, in his infinite Wisdom, he hath greatly stripped the Church, by removing of late divers faithful Ministers and Elders, he may be pleased to send forth many more faithful Labourers into his Harvest.
Signed in, by Order, and on Behalf of, said Meeting:
A TESTIMONY OF THE MONTHLY-MEETING OF FRIENDS
Held in Burlington, the first Day of the eighth Month, in the Year of our Lord 1774, concerning our esteemed Friend,
JOHN WOOLMAN, DECEASED
He was born in Northampton, in the County of Burlington, and Province of West-New-Jersey, in the eighth Month, 1720, of religious Parents, who instructed him very early in the Principles of the Christian Religion, as professed by the People called Quakers, which he esteemed a Blessing to him, even in his young Years, tending to preserve him from the Infection of wicked Children; but, through the Workings of the Enemy, and Levity incident to Youth, he frequently deviated from those parental Precepts, by which he laid a renewed Foundation for Repentance, that was finally succeeded by a godly Sorrow not to be repented of, and so became acquainted with that sanctifying Power which qualifies for true Gospel Ministry, into which he was called about the twenty-second year of his Age; and, by a faithful Use of the Talents committed to him, he experienced an Increase, until he arrived at the State of a Father, capable of dividing the Word aright to the different States he ministered unto; dispensing Milk to Babes, and Meat to those of riper Years. Thus he found the Efficacy of that Power to arise, which, in his own Expressions, "prepares the Creature to stand like a Trumpet through which the Lord speaks to his People."—He was a loving Husband, a tender Father, and very humane to every Part of the Creation under his Care.
His Concern for the Poor and those in Affliction was evident by his Visits to them; whom he frequently relieved by his Assistance and Charity. He was for many Years deeply exercised on Account of the poor enslaved Africans, whose Cause, as he sometimes mentioned, lay almost continually upon him, and to obtain Liberty to those Captives, he laboured both in public and private; and was favoured to see his Endeavours crowned with considerable Success. He was particularly desirous that Friends should not be instrumental to lay Burthens on this oppressed People, but remember the Days of suffering from which they had been providentially delivered; that, if Times of Trouble should return, no Injustice dealt to those in Slavery might rise in Judgment against us, but, being clear, we might on such Occasions address the Almighty with a degree of Confidence, for his Interposition and Relief; being particularly careful, as to himself, not to countenance Slavery even by the Use of those Conveniences of Life which were furnished by their Labour.
He was desirous to have his own, and the Minds of others, redeemed from the Pleasures and immoderate Profits of this World, and to fix them on those Joys which fade not away; his principal Care being after a Life of Purity, endeavouring to avoid not only the grosser Pollutions, but those also which, appearing in a more refined Dress, are not sufficiently guarded against by some well-disposed People. In the latter Part of his Life he was remarkable for the Plainness and Simplicity of his Dress, and, as much as possible, avoided the Use of Plate, costly Furniture, and feasting; thereby endeavouring to become an Example of Temperance and Self-denial, which he believed himself called unto, and was favoured with Peace therein, although it carried the Appearance of great Austerity in the View of some. He was very moderate in his Charges in the Way of Business, and in his Desires after Gain; and, though a Man of Industry, avoided, and strove much to lead others out of extreme Labour and Anxiousness after perishable Things; being desirous that the Strength of our Bodies might not be spent in procuring Things unprofitable, and that we might use Moderation and Kindness to the brute Animals under our Care, to prize the Use of them as a great Favour, and by no Means abuse them; that the Gifts of Providence should be thankfully received and applied to the Uses they were designed for.
He several Times opened a School at Mount-Holly, for the Instruction of poor Friends Children and others, being concerned for their Help and Improvement therein: His Love and Care for the rising Youth among us were truly great, recommending to Parents and those who have the Charge of them, to chuse conscientious and pious Tutors, saying, "It is a lovely Sight to behold innocent Children[1q]," and that "to labour for their Help against that which would mar the Beauty of their Minds, is a Debt we owe them."
His Ministry was sound, very deep and penetrating, sometimes pointing out the dangerous Situation which Indulgence and Custom lead into; frequently exhorting others, especially the Youth, not to be discouraged at the Difficulties which occur, but press after Purity. He often expressed an earnest Engagement that pure Wisdom should be attended to, which would lead into Lowliness of Mind and Resignation to the divine Will, in which State small Possessions here would be sufficient.
In transacting the Affairs of Discipline, his Judgment was sound and clear, and he was very useful in treating with those who had done amiss; he visited such in a private Way in that Plainness which Truth dictates, shewing great Tenderness and Christian Forbearance. He was a constant Attender of our Yearly-meeting, in which he was a good Example, and particularly useful; assisting in the Business thereof with great Weight and Attention. He several Times visited most of the Meetings of Friends in this and the neighbouring Provinces, with the Concurrence of the Monthly-meeting to which he belonged, and, we have Reason to believe, had good Service therein, generally or always expressing, at his Return, how it had fared with him, and the Evidence of Peace in his Mind for thus performing his Duty. He was often concerned with other Friends in the important Service of visiting Families, which he was enabled to go through to Satisfaction.
In the Minutes of the Meeting of Ministers and Elders for this Quarter, at the Foot of a List of the Members of that Meeting, made about five Years before his Death, we find in his Hand-writing the following Observations and Reflections. "As looking over the Minutes, made by Persons who have put off this Body, hath sometimes revived in me a Thought how Ages pass away; so this List may probably revive a like Thought in some, when I and the rest of the Persons above-named are centered in another State of Being.—The Lord, who was the Guide of my Youth, hath in tender Mercies helped me hitherto; he hath healed me of Wounds, he hath helped me out of grievous Entanglements; he remains to be the Strength of my Life; to whom I desire to devote myself in Time and in Eternity."—Signed, John Woolman.
In the twelfth Month, 1771, he acquainted this Meeting that he found his Mind drawn towards a religious Visit to Friends in some Parts of England, particularly in Yorkshire. In the first Month, 1772, he obtained our Certificate, which was approved and endorsed by our Quarterly-meeting, and by the Half-year's-meeting of Ministers and Elders at Philadelphia. He embarked on his Voyage in the fifth, and arrived in London in the sixth, Month following, at the Time of their annual Meeting in that City. During his short Visit to Friends in that Kingdom, we are informed that his Services were acceptable and edifying. In his last Illness he uttered many lively and comfortable Expressions, being "perfectly resigned, having no Will either to live or die," as appears by the Testimony of Friends at York in Great-Britain, in the Suburbs whereof, at the House of our Friend, Thomas Priestman, he died of the Small-pox, on the seventh Day of the tenth Month, 1772, and was buried in Friends Burying-ground in that City, on the ninth of the same, after a large and solid Meeting held on the Occasion at their great Meeting-house, aged near fifty-two Years; a Minister upwards of thirty Years, during which Time he belonged to Mount-Holly Particular-meeting, which he diligently attended when at Home and in Health of Body, and his Labours of Love, and pious Care for the Prosperity of Friends in the blessed Truth, we hope may not be forgotten, but that his good Works may be remembered to Edification.
Signed in, and by Order of, the said Meeting, by
Samuel Allinson, Clerk.
Read and approved at our Quarterly-meeting, held at Burlington the 29th of the eighth Month, 1774.
Signed, by Order of said Meeting,
Daniel Smith, Clerk.
A JOURNAL OF THE LIFE AND TRAVELS OF JOHN WOOLMAN, In the Service of the Gospel
CHAPTER I
His Birth and Parentage, with some Account of the Operations of divine Grace on his Mind in his Youth—His first Appearance in the Ministry—And his Considerations, while young, on the keeping of Slaves
I have often felt a Motion of Love to leave some Hints in Writing of my Experience of the Goodness of God; and now, in the thirty-sixth Year of my Age, I begin this Work.
I was born in Northampton, in Burlington County, West-Jersey, in the Year 1720; and before I was seven Years old I began to be acquainted with the Operations of divine Love. Through the Care of my Parents, I was taught to read nearly as soon as I was capable of it; and, as I went from School one seventh Day, I remember, while my Companions went to play by the Way, I went forward out of Sight, and, sitting down, I read the 22d Chapter of the Revelations: "He shewed me a pure River of Water of Life, clear as Chrystal, proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb, etc." and, in reading it, my Mind was drawn to seek after that pure Habitation, which, I then believed, God had prepared for his Servants. The Place where I sat, and the Sweetness that attended my Mind, remain fresh in my Memory[2q].
This, and the like gracious Visitations, had that Effect upon me, that when Boys used ill Language it troubled me; and, through the continued Mercies of God, I was preserved from it.
The pious Instructions of my Parents were often fresh in my Mind when I happened to be among wicked Children, and were of Use to me. My Parents, having a large Family of Children, used frequently, on first Days after Meeting, to put us to read in the holy Scriptures, or some religious Books, one after another, the rest sitting by without much Conversation; which, I have since often thought, was a good Practice. From what I had read and heard, I believed there had been, in past Ages, People who walked in Uprightness before God, in a Degree exceeding any that I knew, or heard of, now living: And the Apprehension of there being less Steadiness and Firmness, amongst People in this Age than in past Ages, often troubled me while I was a Child.
