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I find that to be a fool as to worldly wisdom, and to commit my cause to God, not fearing to offend men, who take offence at the simplicity of truth, is the only way to remain unmoved at the sentiments of others.
― John Woolman

John Woolman (30 October [O.S. 19 October] 1720 – 7 October 1772) was an American Quaker leader and abolitionist. A preacher of Quaker beliefs, he advocated against slavery, cruelty to animals, and economic injustices and oppression, and protested against taxes supporting the French and Indian War.

Biography[]

Early life[]

John Woolman was born in 1720 in New Jersey, British America, to a Quaker family. He was the son of farmer Samuel Woolman. One day in his youth, he was throwing rocks at a mother robin and killed her. Seized with remorse, he gave the hatchlings a mercy killing. The incident weighed on his heart, leading to his devotion to love and protect all living things from then on.

Woolman married fellow Quaker Sarah Ellis. They had a daughter named Mary.

Career[]

As a young man, Woolman worked as a clerk for a merchant. When he was 23, he once wrote a bill of sale for a slave upon his employer's request, although he believed slavery was inconsistent with Christianity. In 1743, he gave up trading and started a career in tailoring. From that year on, Woolman also traveled across America to speak out against slavery, convincing many slaveholders to free their slaves and Quakers to join the Abolitionist cause. He wrote essays on his beliefs, including Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes. Woolman also abstained the use of products made from slave labor.

In addition to his anti-slavery activities, Woolman refused to pay taxes that supported the French and Indian War and urged tax resistance among the Quakers. He advocated for the rights of Native Americans, making peace with them, as well as those of animals; he opposed the overworking of draft animals, avoided stagecoaches, and was a vegetarian. His final journey was to England in 1772, where he contracted smallpox after reaching York, dying there that year.

Throughout his life, Woolman kept a journal, in which he mainly wrote against slavery, but also animal cruelty and economic injustices and oppression. This was published posthumously in 1774, as The Journal of John Woolman.

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