Clean Cloth and Clean Spirit: Christianity in Woolman's Journals Anonymous College

John Woolman’s Journals document his life from his earliest childhood experiences and growing relationship to God as he becomes more involved in the Quaker community to his adult life, working as a merchant’s assistant and later a tailor. Woolman’s observations and memories throughout this spiritual narrative present many moral lessons on Christian behavior not just at Church Meetings, but outside in everyday life. In his journals, Woolman ties the sinful practice of slavery to the clothing materials of the textile industry. This moral association, which can be traced from the beginning of his professional career to his later adult life, produces a dynamic between physical and spiritual cleansing across Woolman’s personal spiritual development and his broader observations of Christian hypocrisy in slave-holding.

Slavery, at the time, was present in nearly all the major American industries such as agriculture and the manufacturing of goods. Woolman’s focus on the exploitative practices of the textile industry stems from his first-hand experiences. When he is 23, he writes about being employed as a clerk by a merchant, who asks him to write a bill of sale for a recently sold slave. This economic opportunity becomes a kind of...