John Woolman's Journal Notes

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Overview	Chapter 1	Chapter 2	Chapter 3
Chapter 4	Chapter 5	Notes	Downloads

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¹The number of slaves in New Jersey at the commencement of Woolman's labors for emancipation was undoubtedly large. As late as 1800 there were 12,442. Perth Amboy was a place of deposit for the newly imported Africans, and long barracks were erected for their accommodation. In 1734, when Woolman was a lad of fourteen, an insurrection took place, which had for its object the massacre of the masters, and an alliance with the Indians and French. Some years later a negro convicted of crime was burned alive at Perth Amboy. An immense number of negroes, gathered from all the neighboring townships, were compelled to be witnesses of the slow torment of the victim.

2This pamphlet bears the imprint of Benjamin Franklin, 1754.

³He seems to have regarded agriculture as the business most conducive to moral and physical health. He thought "if the leadings of the Spirit were more attended to, more people would be engaged in the sweet employment of husbandry, where labor is agreeable and healthful." He does not condemn the honest acquisition of wealth in other business free from oppression; even "merchandising," he thought, might be carried on innocently and in pure reason. Christ does not forbid the laying up of a needful support for family and friends; the command is, " Lay not up for YOURSELVES treasures on earth." From his little farm on the Rancocas he looked out with a mingled feeling of wonder and sorrow upon the hurry and unrest of the world; and especially was he pained to see luxury and extravagance overgrowing the early plainness and simplicity of his own religious society. He regarded the merely rich man with unfeigned pity. With nothing of his scorn, he had all of Thoreau's commiseration, for people who went about bowed down with the weight of broad acres and great houses on their backs.

⁴Christians refused to pay taxes to support heathen ternpies. See Cave s Primitive Christianity, Part III. p. 327.

⁵ Fox s Acts and Monuments, p. 233.

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Source: Overview by Bryan Wright

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