Upon entering the house he observed some colored servants, and learning that they were slaves, he quietly turned and left the room and the house. Thomas and his friends supposed that he would shortly return, but they were disappointed. Thomas Woodward was a man of some standing in the community as farmer, surveyor and conveyancer. He also bound books. Moreover, his position in the Meeting was one of importance, and the incident had a great effect upon his mind. On waking next morning he told his wife that he must liberate his slaves. She asked if all must be set free, adding "Must Bet go too?" even bursting into tears at the thought of losing her faithful servant. But the decree was made and carried out, for Thomas was not willing to keep a house at which his friends could not be entertained. He was afterwards appointed on a committee to visit such as held slaves, and endeavored to convince them of the evil.

The cause of the Negro was meantime gaining in strength, and Philadelphia Friends in 1760 could say, "The growing concern, which hath appeared amongst us for some years past, to discourage the Practice of making Slaves of our Fellow Creatures, hath been visibly blessed with Success." 1

The Monthly Meeting to which John Woolman belonged, in response to the question of the Yearly Meeting of 1755, gave in 1757 a favorable report upon the whole, as to the condition of slaves in Burlington County at that time. The Friends said, "all are clear of importing negroes or purchasing them for term of life; several have been purchased for a term of years. They are generally well fed and clothed. Some are taught to read and taken to meetings, but others are taken little care of in these respects." The freeing of a pair of slaves, David and Dinah, by Caleb Haines, by verbal process, would coincide with this date. A Court opinion later upheld its legality. The Yearly Meeting referred to had made the purchase of slaves a disownable offence. John Woolman himself tells us what was done in 1758. Of this period and of the action taken at Philadelphia by the Friends on what proved to be a really momentous occasion, much has been written. The Journal itself is explicit. The essays

1 Epistle (Broadside) from Yearly Meeting held at Burlington, 9mo. 27, 1760. In Haverford College Library. John Smith, Clerk.

See Hall's Gazette, imo. 17, 1776.

on the slave trade, and his personal labors, had given the impetus to a movement which made the meeting of 1758 a notable gathering in the results of its action on slavery, when the humble-minded preacher moved the large assembly to its depths by his appeal. The Committee upon which for several years he successfully labored, continued its work until 1761, and in 1776 all Friends in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting were disowned who refused to manumit their slaves. The system was abolished by law in Pennsylvania in 1780 and in 1803 by New Jersey.1

Thus far the anti-slavery cause. Woolman's attitude towards another great reform, physical rather than moral, was conservative. His visit to Bucks county in the autumn of 1759 was made entirely with the slavery protest in mind; he returned to find his town in the throes of a visitation of small-pox, the dreaded scourge of the eighteenth century. At this time, however, inoculation was rapidly advancing in favor with the eminent physicians of the day, and the Philadelphia practitioners were using it with marked success. The young Thomas Jefferson had recently made his first visit to Philadelphia to undergo inoculation on the banks of the Schuylkill. A profound impression had been caused in November, 1757, by the deaths of Jonathan Edwards at Princeton, and that of his daughter, the wife of President Aaron Burr, both the victims of small-pox. John Woolman had evidently a great dread of the loathsome disease; and little wonder, for a sensitive and delicate temperament like his must have felt great repulsion towards it, in the days before any sort of suitable antiseptic treatment was known. The patient was usually visited by all his relatives and friends, no matter how great his suffering or how high his fever, and at his funeral for he usually died-crowds attended at the infected house and grave.

John Woolman's sister had died of small-pox, and he himself, his cousin William Hunt, and his own daughter were to die of it. He mentions it in more than one of his letters, and was in the habit of avoiding those houses where the disease was known to

1 The slaves of Gloucester County, N. J., were freed with much formality. The owner was obliged to bring his slave before two overseers of the township and two Justices of the Peace, who examined the negro to determine his soundness of body. mind and age, with a view to his ability for self-support. The first record in the Book of Manumissions is for John Gill, Sr., who freed a slave, Nov. 23, 1787. ("Notes on Old Gloucester," p. 65.)

be present. It was in his mind upon going to England, as indeed it was with all persons not immune. When Edward Bass, first Bishop of Massachusetts, went to London for ordination by Bishop Sherlock in 1767, his letter to the officers of the church shows the haunting fear of small-pox which was felt by most American visitors. His sponsor says, "There is one thing in particular in which he desires your assistance, viz. that you will do what you can to dismiss his business speedily, because he has never had the small-pox, which he is fearful of, having proved fatal to many New England men in London." 1

With all this dread John Woolman nevertheless shared the feelings of those ministers of the period who preached from their pulpits against inoculation as an interference with the designs of the Most High. He regarded small-pox as "a Messenger of the Almighty, to be an Assistant in the cause of virtue." But he is too good a doctor and health-commissioner, and too intelligent a citizen, not to see the necessity for isolation. Moreover, he writes, "Had God endowed men with understanding to prevent this disease, by means which have never proved hurtful or mortal, such a discovery might be considered as the period of chastisement by this distemper, where that knowledge extended." A suppressed paragraph shows Woolman's sanctified common sense. "Was no business done, no visits made, nor any assembling of people together, but such as were consistent with pure Wisdom, nor no Inoculation, there would be a great Alteration in the Operation of this disorder amongst Men." There can hardly be any doubt, as J. G. Whittier suggests, that vaccination would have been welcomed by him: "he almost seems to have anticipated some such preventative." Here, indeed, is the physician, prescribing isolation and quarantine. Thoughts like these invariably arose when Woolman contemplated a tour such as he now felt called upon to make in the interest of the negro.

1 W. Updike: "History of the Episcopal Church in Narragansett," Vol. II, p. 46.

CHAPTER IV

1760

NEWPORT AND THE SLAVE QUESTION. CORRESPONDENCE

John Woolman had long felt that he must again visit the Friends "to the Eastward," and express to them his deep sympathy for those who bore the burden of protest against the slave interests of New England. He had been in Newport and Nantucket in 1747 at the age of twenty-seven, and had then traveled by way of New York and through the "Oblong" country between the Hudson River and the Connecticut boundary. This time in the spring of 1760, with Samuel Eastburn, who had recently accompanied him in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, he went more directly toward Newport, all the way under the burden of the effort that he felt he must make to arouse emancipation sentiment in the very stronghold of slavery, of which Newport was one of the largest centres. He was to visit "those whose station in families or in the society was such that their example had a powerful tendency to open the way for others to go aside from. . . the Truth." the Truth." Here dwelt the Wantons, the Redwoods, and Stephen Hopkins, while Samuel Rodman of Greenwich and Thomas Hazard of Peacedale, with other influential Friends, were all attenders of Newport Yearly Meeting.1

In preparation for this visit it is evident that his friend, John Smith, had given him some helpful advice as to his conduct among the wealthy Friends he was about to visit and who were known to himself. John Woolman never left home without having made every preparation in case he should not return, and the letter which he wrote John Smith 15 on the eve of his departure not only shows this, but also the intimacy which existed between them. "S.A." is Samuel Allinson of Burlington, New Jersey, a Quaker conveyancer and attorney of note, and a man of influ

1 For the influential Friends to whom was John Woolman's message in Rhode Island, see "Quakers in the American Colonies," p. 171 ff, by R. M. Jones.

ence in the meeting. "Mary's" identity is established as the granddaughter of Ebenezer Large, whose estate John Woolman aided in settling. The letter to John Pemberton was written on the same day.

Belov'd Friend

8

I rec'd that letter from I.P. at a time when my mind was so Employ'd about endeavouring to put my family and affairs in a condition to leave them with satisfaction; And that, with the Shortness of the Time before me, Seem'd to make it very difficult to me to do anything in it. And meeting with J. Noble, I saw no better way than to send thee the letter.

I understood the hundrd pound to Mary was to be paid in 3 years after her Father's decease, which is not yet Expir'd. I propos'd to Mary some weeks ago to take a bond of S.A. for that Sum that might be due. She seem'd Easie to have it in Samuel's hands till time of payment as Believing it safer, and I was Cautious, as the Money was not due, of moveing anything which might beget uneasiness in the family; but if any one who are more fully acquainted with his Circumstance, think the Case requires it, I Expect he would let her have £100 in Elt. hands at the request of f'rds. So no more at present as to that.

Last night in my Sleep I thought I was in a Room with thee, and thou drawing thy chair nigh mine, did, in a friendly way, tell me of Sundry particular failings thou had observed in me, and Express Some desire that I might do better. I felt inwardly thankfull for thy care over me, and made little other reply than to tell thee that I took it very kind.

Allmost as Soon as I woke I remembered it, and though I could see some things in which I had not done so well as I might, yet the particulars thou pointed out were gone from me, nor can I yet remember them.

I am about to leave home under much thoughtfulness, & at times it Seems to border upon distress of Mind. But (I) retain a desire to put my whole trust in Him who is able to help throug (sic) all troubles.

With kind Love to thee and thy Wife, I remain your f'rd da. mo

16 4 1760

John Woolman.

I hope my Dear Wife will be Noticed by her friends.

J. W.

Endorsed: "For John Smith, at Burlington."1

1 Ridgway Branch, Phila. Library, Phila. Smith MSS., Vol. V, 1756-1762. For S. Allinson, see note, p. 8.