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John Woolman's Approach to Social Action— as Exemplified in Relation to Slavery*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Phillips Moulton
Phillips Moulton
Affiliation:
Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Adrian College, Michigan
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Extract

More than any other single influence, it was Woolman's clear and steady voice that woke the conscience of the Quakers and ultimately, through them, of the Western world to the moral evil of slavery.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , December 1966 , pp. 399 - 410
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1966

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References

1. The Journal of John Woolman and A Plea for the Poor, Intro, by Tolles, Frederick B., New York: Corinth Books, 1961, p. viii.Google Scholar

2. The Journal of John Woolinan, (Ed.) Kepler, T. S., Cleveland and New York: World Pub. Co., 1954, p. 62.Google Scholar

3. Ibid., p. 119.

4. The Journal and Essays of John Woolman, (Ed.) Gummere, Amelia M, New York: MacMillan, 1922, p. 380.Google Scholar

5. Ibid., p. 381.

6. Cf. Emerson's essay, The Method of Nature, in which he contends that a reform movement must aim at spiritual or eternal values if it is not eventually to “become carrion and an offense to the nostril.” This is exemplified in Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, in which reformers without a spiritual base are depicted as ultimately betraying the movement.

7. T. S. Kepler, op. cit., p. 62.

8. Ibid., p. 39.

9. A.M. Gummere, op. cit., p. 364.

10. Ibid., pp. 362–3, 389.

11. T. S. Kepler, op. cit., p. 118.

12. Ibid., pp. 90–91.

13. Ibid., p. 64. Cf. p. 119.

14. Ibid., pp. 16–17.

15. Ibid., p. 149.

16. Ibid., p. 187.

17. Cf. Ibid., p. 72.

18. Cf. Ibid., p. 120; Gummere, op. cit., p. 384. The relationship between ethical purity and vision is expressed frequently throughout his writings.

19. T. S. Kepler, op. cit., p. 83; cf. T. Paine, Common Sense, Appendix, where Paine supports his militaristic arguments by accusing the Quakers of ethical inconsistency.

20. T. S. Kepler, op. cit., pp. 173–174.

21. Ibid., p. 116.

22. Cf. Ibid., pp. 24, 52–54.

23. Ibid., p. 41.

24. Ibid., p. 122.

25. Ibid., p. 123.

26. A. M. Guinmere, op. cit., p. 336. The parts enclosed in parentheses were intended by Woolinan to be omitted from the second edition (1762) but the Publication Committee retained them.

27. Ibid., p. 349.

28. T. S. Kepler, op. cit., pp. 131–2.

29. Ibid., p. 385.

30. Drake, T. E., Quakers and Slavery in America, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1950, p. 51.Google Scholar

31. Ibid., p. 61.

32. Cf. Reynolds, R., The Wisdom of John Woolman, London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1948, pp. 56–58.Google Scholar

33. T. S. Kepler, op. cit., p. 166.

34. Ibid., p. 95.

35. R. Reynolds, op. cit., pp. 70–71.

36. P. S. Kepler, op. cit., p. 59; cf. p. 106.

37. A. M. Gummere, op. cit., p. 385.

38. T. S. Kepler, op. cit., pp. 147, 112, 120, 59, 98, respectively.

39. Cf. Ibid., pp. 122–123.

40. Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964, pp. 15–16, 93–94.Google Scholar