I HAVE often felt a motion of love to leave some hints in writing of my experience of the goodness of God, and now, in the thirty-sixth year of my age, I begin this work.
The rich figurative language and heartfelt poetic descriptions to come are notably missing from the opening lines of the Journal. Which is at it should be; if you ever read an opening line to a journal that carries the same feeling as the language which is revealed as it evolves, you can bet the farm that the journalist has gone back and rewritten it from a later point in history. Nevertheless, this opening line to the text is highly suggestive: it reveals the simplicity of the Quaker lifestyle while conveying some rather significant information. In just one sentence, the reader finds out how old the writer is, that he has not to this point pursued or established a career in literature, that he has allowed himself to live to an age at which he might be expected to have something important to say and that the overarching motivating force of that life has been a devotion to God.
When the officer came to pay me, I told him I could not take pay, having admitted him into my house in a passive obedience to authority.
This quote is in reference to being called upon to quarter soldiers on his property. As a Quaker, Woolman’s pacifism came into direct conflict with colonial jurisprudence. He reluctantly gave in and circumstances realized turned out differently from circumstances indicated. Nevertheless, when time came to accept remuneration for his troubles, Woolman rejected the offer. What is interesting, however, is the term he uses to describe this incident: “passive obedience.” This is a phrase and concept distinctive to Woolman, existing neither within the sphere of colonial citizenry nor the Quaker religion. In essence, Woolman’s decision to violate his religious principles to a minor degree in order to adhere to the law can be read as an act that shares not just a similar thesis, but a similar name: “non-violent resistance.” Woolman can be honestly be situated to a certain degree as a forerunner of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Of course, he would suggest his actions trace backward rather than looking forward; he was just practicing the preaching of Jesus Christ.
When trade is carried on productive of much misery, and they who suffer by it are many thousand miles off, the danger is the greater of not laying their sufferings to heart. In procuring slaves on the coast of Africa, many children are stolen privately; wars are encouraged among the negroes, but all is at a great distance. Many groans arise from dying men which we hear not. Many cries are uttered by widows and fatherless children which reach not our ears. Many cheeks are wet with tears, and faces sad with unutterable grief, which we see not. Cruel tyranny is encouraged. The hands of robbers are strengthened.
Although some later editions published after the abolition of slavery excised the parts of the Journal which indicted the practice on the grounds of irrelevance, it is safe to say that one of the primary reasons the work has lasted so long is due to the heartfelt rage against slave trafficking which Woolman impeaches with such fiercely poetic language. The real strength of Woolman’s voice as one of the earliest and staunchest critics of slaveholding is that he took it out of the broader political sphere and made it real while at the same time sustaining his opposition on systemic terms. The above example is just one of many to be found in the journal.
If several principal Men in Business unite in setting the Wages of those who work for Hire, and therein have Regard to a Profit to themselves answerable to unnecessary Expense in their Families, which the Wages of the others on a moderate Industry will not afford a comfortable Living for their families, and a proper Education for their Children, this is like laying a Temptation in the Way of some to strive for a Place higher than they are in, when they have not Stock sufficient for it.
Woolman’s Journal is also a lasting document as the result the diarist being an intellectually gifted progressive liberal in an societal era dominated by Edmund Burke-style conservatism. Though unquestionably left-wing on issues ranging from slavery to the corrupting influence of wealth on political equality, Woolman was also very much a man of his times in other ways. This quote is an excellent example of how even the most progressive of minds are often hamstrung by the prevailing ignorance of their age. It is difficult to reconcile the great poetry of his outrage against slavery with the Dark Ages acceptance of a concept like people being divided into those of “good Stock” and bad Stock.” Just as distressing, perhaps, is how his otherwise usually dependable insight into labor economics could be so incredibly out of whack here in a proposition that is essentially spitting in the face of what would soon become known as the American Dream.
