rs of epoch-making reforms are seldom accorded the reward they
merit. Later apostles usually obscure the greatness of their
predecessors, and posterity is prone to overlook the pristine
achievements of those who first had the vision. Such is the case of
John Woolman, a poor, untutored shopkeeper of New Jersey. He was among
the foremost to visualize the wrongs of human slavery, but his real
significance as an abolitionist has been greatly dimmed by the
subsequent deeds of such apostles as Garrison, Phillips, and Lincoln.

John Woolman's career as an apostle of freedom dates from his first
appearance in the ministry of the Society of Friends, an organization
commonly known as the Quakers, founded by George Fox in England during
the middle of the seventeenth century. Shortly after the organization
of this society, many of the members migrated to New England and the
Middle Atlantic Colonies. Others were exiled by Charles II to the West
Indies.[167] Paradoxical as it may seem, these earliest Friends,
though distinguishing themselves from other Christian sects by their
special stress on immediate teaching and guidance of the Holy Spirit,
had no scruples against keeping slaves. As a matter of fact, there was
a prevalent conviction that Christianity indorsed slavery.[168]

This anomalous indifference to the enslaved Negro's condition remained
almost constant until 1742. A few sporadic attempts, to be sure, were
made to discountenance slavery, but popular opinion, incited by
greed, favored the institution. In 1671, for example, George Fox,
during his visit to Barbadoes, admonished slaveholders to train their
slaves in the fear of God; and further admonished the overseers "to
deal gently and mildly with their Negroes, and not use cruelty towards
them as the manner of some hath been and is, and after certain years
of servitude make them free."[169] Four years later, William Edmundson
complained against the unjust treatment of slaves, but was brought,
for his pains, before the Governor, on the charge of "endeavoring to
excite an insurrection among the blacks."[170] In 1688 the German
Quakers of Germantown, Pennsylvania, sent to the Yearly Meeting for
the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Colonies a protest against "the buying
and keeping of Negroes."[171] The matter was taken under advisement,
but not until eight years later did the Yearly Meeting advise against
"bringing in any more Negroes." The Chester Quarterly Meeting,
however, ins