Slavery
Although his life is properly removed from slavery, because he isn't a slave owner himself, he encounters the ideas of slave ownership when writing a bill of sale for a friend. Writing the document leaves him with a sense of dismay, and he asks his friend to consider abandoning the sale. Then, he thinks and prays about it and decides that he cannot support the owning of a human being as animal property. Slavery becomes a symbol for his willingness to criticize the cultural assumptions of his community. His opinion is that slavery represents something dark and evil about mankind.
Openness and mysticism
Through specific motifs, Woolman comes to understand that his openness toward religion is actually quite contrary to other points of view. He experiences persecution from the Puritan community who feel that he is not religious enough to hold dogma. In fact, Woolman is too religious to hold dogma, understanding that religion is far too mystical to be reduced so easily to traditionally accepted views and behaviors. To him, religion is an ongoing process of transformation through the contemplation of God and life.
God through motif
Through the journal, the reader sees a man continually perplexed by his experience of God. He thinks about God all the time, so he undergoes a lengthy series of changes as he comes to admit that aspects of his life and his community's assumptions stand against his religious conviction. He learns "from God" so to speak what a virtuous life is. Although the reader cannot experience Woolman's life from his point of view, "God" can be seen as a symbol for Woolman's own experience of life and reality.
His symbolic tract
The tract is the manifestation of a growing sense of displeasure in Woolman in regard to slavery. His tract offers his community Some Considerations about slavery, so the work is clearly symbolic. He thinks people should rethink their assumptions about race and slave ownership. This demonstrates that he believes that by giving the issue serious thought, people should be able to arrive at the conclusion that slavery is clearly antithetical to the basic premises of the Christian religion.
The abandonment of material
Through his developing mysticism, Woolman also concludes that having a career to earn money to buy more stuff—it stands against his convictions about the sacred nature of life on earth. He abandons the quest for material gain and concerns himself with sharing his point of view. He gives sermons throughout his region and preaches among Quakers, inspiring them to continue their open-minded journey of religious mysticism. He also speaks about slavery and the vice of it.
