isted upon the adoption of definite measures against slave
traffic, but the Society never manifested any enthusiasm for such
legislation. The Friends were themselves slaveholders, and
slaveholders were rapidly increasing their wealth and power through
slavery; so they felt no pressing need of reform. The Yearly Meetings,
therefore, like many modern congresses, dextrously dodged the grave
issue of Negroes' rights, and merely expressed an opinion meekly
opposed to the importation of the blacks, and a desire that "Friends
generally do, as much as may be, avoid buying such Negroes as shall
hereafter be brought in, rather than offend any Friends who are
against it; yet this is only caution and not censure."[172] Not until
1742 was any appreciable influence exerted on the Friends against
slavery. A storekeeper of Mount Holly, New Jersey, requested his clerk
to prepare a bill of sale of a Negro woman whom he had sold. The
thought of writing such an instrument greatly oppressed the clerk. He
complied, however, but afterwards told both the employer and the
customer that he considered slave-keeping inconsistent with the
Christian religion.[173] The clerk who ventured such an opinion was
John Woolman.

John Woolman was born in Northampton, in Burlington County, West
Jersey, in the year 1720. His youthful struggle against wickedness was
in many respects similar to Bunyan's. The fear of God seized him in
early boyhood, and an intense religious fervor characterized his
future career. Though this fervor was undoubtedly an innate tendency,
it owed its development partly to the early guidance of pious parents;
for Woolman's father was, without doubt, a devout Christian. Every
Sunday after meeting, the children were required to read the Holy
Scriptures or some religious books. Here, no doubt, was the beginning
of Woolman's religious devotion to the teachings of the Bible.[174] At
times, during his youth, he apparently forgot these earliest
teachings, but he never wandered too far to be reproved by his
conscience. When he reached the age of sixteen, his will was finally
subdued, and he learned the lesson that youth seldom learns,--that
"all the cravings of sense must be governed by a Divine principle." He
tells us that he became convinced that "true religion consisted in an
inward life, wherein the heart doth love and reverence God, the
Creator, and learns to exercise true justice and goodness, not only
toward all men, but also toward th