John Woolman

John Woolman (October 19, 1720 (O.S.)/October 30, 1720 (N.S.)– October 7, 1772) was an American merchant, tailor, journalist, Quaker preacher, and early abolitionist during the colonial era. Based in Mount Holly, New Jersey, 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." The Journal has been continuously in print since 1774, published in numerous editions; the most recent scholarly edition was published in 1989.