John Woolman

John Woolman
Church	Religious Society of Friends
Personal details
Born	(1720-10-19)October 19, 1720 New Jersey, British America
Died	October 7, 1772(1772-10-07) (aged 51) York, Great Britain
Buried	York, Great Britain
Denomination	Quaker
Spouse	Sarah Ellis (née Abbott)
Children	1
Occupation	Trade

John Woolman (October 19, 1720 (O.S.)/October 30, 1720 (N.S.)^[1]– October 7, 1772) was an American merchant, tailor, journalist, Quaker preacher, and early abolitionist during the colonial era. Based in Mount Holly, near Philadelphia, he traveled through the American frontier to preach Quaker beliefs, and advocate against slavery and the slave trade, cruelty to animals, economic injustices and oppression, and conscription. Beginning in 1755 with the outbreak of the French and Indian War, he urged tax resistance to deny support to the colonial military. In 1772, Woolman traveled to England, where he urged Quakers to support abolition of slavery.

Woolman published numerous essays, especially against slavery. He kept a journal throughout his life; it was published posthumously, entitled The Journal of John Woolman (1774). Included in Volume I of the Harvard Classics since 1909, it is considered a prominent American spiritual work. It has also been admired for the power and clarity of its prose by non-Quakers such as the philosopher John Stuart Mill, the poet William Ellery Channing, and the essayist Charles Lamb, who urged a friend to "get the writings of John Woolman by heart."^[2] The Journal has been continuously in print since 1774, published in numerous editions; the most recent scholarly edition was published in 1989.