WOOLMAN, JOHN. - Quaker preacher, b. in New Jersey on 19 Oct. 1720, d. at York on 7 Oct. 1772.
At the age of 26 he felt called by God to preach the antislavery gospel. He was a theorist of passive obedience, maintaining that in critical cases one should obey the letter but not the spirit. Thus, for example, in harmony with his own principles, he deprived himself of sugar because it was cultivated by black slaves, and he gave up colored fabrics because the dye harmed the workers employed in that trade.
He set out his views in An epistle (1772) and in his Journal (1774). The Journal was admired by E. Whittier, who wrote that he felt in it the sweetness of the scent of violets, by Channing, by Emerson, and, in England, by Charles Lamb, who declared to a visitor from America that it was the only book by an American author that he had read twice.
Bibliographyed. of the Journal edited by J. G. Whittier, Boston 1871, and by A. M. Summers, New York 1922.
BIBL.: ed. of the Journal edited by J. G. Whittier, Boston 1871, and by A. M. Summers, New York 1922.
Guidi, Augusto. “Woolman, john.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XII, col. 1713. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1954. https://azioneromana.com/article/woolman-john.
MLA
Guidi, Augusto. “Woolman, john.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XII, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1954, col. 1713. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/woolman-john.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec12_woolman_john,
author = {Guidi, Augusto},
title = {Woolman, john},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {XII},
pages = {1713},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1954},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/woolman-john}
}
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