John Woolman was an influential Quaker abolitionist that lived from 1720 to 1772 in colonial Burlington County, New Jersey. During his life, he held many occupations that included farmer, lawyer, teacher, author, and mobile Quaker minister. Woolman spent twenty-nine years of his life traveling throughout the colonies in an effort to expand abolitionist thought. He authored several Quaker essays and books, the most famous of which include The Journal of John Woolman, and his essay “Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes,” Parts I and II.
In 1746, Woolman embarked on a substantial journey through the South and felt compelled to document the observations he had made about slavery and the treatment of slaves. It is unclear whether Woolman originally intended to publish his findings. However, as Woolman’s father, Samuel Woolman, lay on his deathbed in 1750, he asked his son whether he “expected soon too take the advice of friends in publishing” the manuscript. Inspired by his father’s wishes, Woolman presented his essay to the Publication Committee of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting for revision in 1753. In 1754, the first edition of “Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes” was published and distributed to Quakers throughout the colonies.
“Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes” is widely regarded as one of the most influential and groundbreaking abolitionist documents in American history. When Woolman finally presented his essay to the Society of Friends, a Quaker organization, in 1754, it was met with enthusiastic approval and served to spark the abolitionist movement that the Quaker community pioneered. Until Woolman introduced his antislavery position to the Society of Friends, a majority of Quakers that inhabited the colonies not only owned slaves, but had no moral or religious opposition to the institution of slavery. However, Woolman’s argument changed the way Quakers viewed slavery, from mere ownership of property, to the oppression and brutalization of human beings.
James Chattin, a Philadelphian Quaker, is credited with the first publication of “Some Considerations” in 1754. Chattin’s Printings Office was located in Church-Alley, and it is believed that he was chiefly employed in the publication of pamphlets such as Woolman’s. The final pages of the 1754 edition of “Some Considerations” advertise other literature Chattin had published during his fairly short and otherwise inconsequential career. These works included The Youth’s Instructor in the English Tongue, Useful Miscellanies: Or serious Reflections respecting Mens Duty to God and one towards another, and other seemingly frivolous manuscripts. It is safe to assume that the publication of Woolman’s essay was Chattin’s greatest occupational accomplishment.
In 1762, eight years after the first edition of “Some Considerations” was released, Woolman authored a supplementary pamphlet entitled “Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes. Recommended to the Professors of Christianity of every Denomination. Part the Second.” In 1774, this additional manuscript was published in conjunction with Part I of the essay by a publisher named Joseph Crukshank. Entitled The Works of John Woolman. Part the Second, Crukshank’s compilation marked the first time both parts of “Some Considerations” were published in unison. Like Chattin, Crukshank was a Philadelphian Quaker and member of the Society of Friends. His publishing house, Crukshank and Collins, was located on Market Street, between Second and Third Streets. Crukshank published books and pamphlets for fellow members of the Society of Friends, but made a respectable living and earned a solid reputation as a publisher through the sale of a wide variety of literature. In his book The History of Printing in America, Isaiah Thomas writes, “Crukshank took a good stand in Market street, and traded very considerably… and is greatly esteemed by his fellow citizens.” The fact that Crukshank chose to posthumously publish both parts of Woolman’s essay serves to illuminate the degree to which Woolman’s reputation as an influential societal figure grew between 1754 and 1774. It also illustrates the traction the abolitionist movement had gained since the time Part I of the essay had been distributed.
The first edition of “Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes. Recommended to the Professors of Christianity of every Denomination,” was published and presented to the public as a brief, thirty-page booklet in 1754. An excerpt from Part I of “Some Considerations” appears in Appendix B of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano because it was deemed by the editor, Angelo Costanzo, a worthy and influential example of abolitionist literature. Over the course of the essay, Woolman employs various aspects of religion, morality, and humanity to construct a logical argument against slavery. The portion of the essay that Costanzo included perfectly captures the crux of Woolman’s argument, which, as Woolman himself puts it, is that “To consider mankind otherwise than brethren, to think favours are peculiar to one nation, and exclude others, plainly supposes a darkness in understanding: for as God’s love is universal, so where the mind is sufficiently influenced by it, it begets a likeness of itself, and the heart is enlarged towards all men. Again, to conclude a people forward, perverse, and worse by nature than others, (who ungratefully receive favours, and apply them to bad ends) this will excite a behavior toward them unbecoming the excellence of true religion.” Woolman urges his readers to consider themselves victims of slavery, by which method he is certain his audience will realize that the way slaves are treated is not the manner in which his readers would like to be treated themselves. It is a simple, yet overwhelmingly powerful argument that calls into question the absence of Christian ideals in the ownership of slaves, and helped set the foundation for the abolitionist movement that would eventually follow.
The way in which Costanzo manipulated the original document to fit a representative need is noteworthy because of the way in which he was able to extract the crucial tenets of Woolman’s argument from a much longer manuscript and successfully outline the major points Woolman makes. The excerpt from The Interesting Narrative only contains six full paragraphs, and excludes nearly all of Woolman’s Biblical references that appear throughout the text. The six paragraphs Costanzo chose were plucked from the first twelve pages of “Some Considerations,” yet clearly encapsulate Woolman’s agenda and various argumentative techniques. This excerpt also highlights the various avenues through which Woolman sought to reach the conscience of his audience and convince his readers that slavery was in fact a dangerous practice that not only harmed those that were enslaved, but the slave owners themselves. To this end, Woolman emphasized the detrimental capacity of the ownership of slaves to the Christian soul. He argued that individuals in possession of slaves did not practice the meekness and humility stressed in Christianity. Such a statement allowed Woolman to equate enslavement with the malpractice of Christianity, which both scared and humiliated the slave-owning portion of Woolman’s audience.
Part II of “Some Considerations” is markedly longer than Part I, and it employs several fresh angles of argumentation that are far more intense and assertive in tone than Part I. While much of the document is filled with Biblical anecdotes upon which Woolman builds his abolitionist case, there are several moments in the text that are indicative of a greater societal acceptance of the abolitionist movement at the time Woolman wrote Part II. Unlike Part I, in which Woolman prefaces his argument by acknowledging its fairly gentle tone as an effort to avoid offending any of his readers, Part II does not sugarcoat any of the issues Woolman brings up. In Part I Woolman meekly suggests that his audience, “…further consider… that whatsoever difficulty accrues thereon, we are justly chargeable with, and to bear all inconveniences attending it, with a serious and weighty concern of mind…” In Part II, however, Woolman insists, “Negroes are our fellow creatures, and their present condition amongst us requires our serious consideration.” In addition, he states, “The colour of a man avails nothing, in matters of right and equity.” Woolman clearly addresses his audience more forcefully and directly in Part II, as exhibited by the palpable shift in language and tone from the former edition to the latter. This increased intensity as compared to the essay written in 1754 reflects the progression of the abolitionist movement over the course of Woolman’s life.
It is easy to see why Angelo Costanzo chose to include an excerpt from Part I of “Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes” in his compilation of early abolitionist literature. Part I was distributed thirty-five years before the publication of Equiano’s narrative, and helps the reader understand how the abolitionist movement had grown in that timeframe. The delicate manner in which Woolman addresses his audience affords the reader a better understanding of how the general public would have reacted to any challenge to slavery, while simultaneously illustrating how radical Woolman’s thoughts truly were. Woolman ignited a movement that would eventually bring an end to one of mankind’s greatest atrocities.
Works Cited
Equiano, Olaudah. "Appendix B: Writings of the First Abolitionist Movement." The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Ed. Angelo Costanzo. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 2001. 327-28. Print.
Moulton, Phillips. "John Woolman's Approach to Social Action: As Exemplified in Relation to Slavery." Church History 35.4 (1966): 399-410. JSTOR. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. .
Thomas, Isaiah. The History of Printing in America. Vol. II. Philadelphia: of Isaiah Thomas, 1810. Print.
Walker, Anders. "John Woolman: Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes - Impact." Milestone Documents . Schlager Group, Inc., 2011. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. .
Woolman, John. Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes. Philadelphia: Printings Office, 1754. Print.
Woolman, John. The Works of John Woolman in Two Parts. Philadelphia: Printed by J. Crukshank, 1774. Print.
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