e brute creatures."[175]

All this time Woolman lived with his parents and worked on the
plantation. His schooling was, consequently, meagre, but he gave a
generous portion of his leisure to his self-improvement. At the age of
twenty-one, he left home to tend shop and keep books for a baker in
Mount Holly. Meanwhile, his religious fervor was growing more intense,
and with it his genuine philanthropy. The inevitable sequence of his
accelerated enthusiasm for spreading the teachings of Christianity was
his entrance into the Christian ministry.[176]

In 1746 Woolman accompanied his beloved friend, Isaac Andrews, on a
tour through Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina. It was on this journey
that he beheld for the first time the miseries of slavery.[177] He
became so depressed with what he saw that on his return he wrote an
essay on the subject, publishing it in 1754. The essay appeared under
the elongated title of "Some Considerations on the Keeping of
Negroes Recommended to the Professors of Christianity of Every
Denomination."[178] The theme of Woolman's discussion is the
Brotherhood of Man. "All men by nature," he argues, "are equally
entitled to the equity of the Golden Rule, and under indispensable
obligations to it."[179] The whole discussion, which is an appeal to
the Friends to be mindful of the teachings of the Bible, glows with
the religious zeal which was so eminently characteristic of the
author. It is replete with such Biblical references as are sure to
have a wholesome effect upon a religious sect like the Society of
Friends.

Woolman made a second visit in 1757 to the Southern meetings of the
Society of Friends. Again he beheld the miseries of slavery and became
greatly alarmed at the extension of the system. Everywhere he turned,
he saw slaves. What pained him most was the presence of slaves in the
homes of Friends. He declined, therefore, to accept the hospitality of
his several hosts, feeling that the acceptance of such courtesies
would be an indorsement or encouragement of the evil.[180] Meanwhile,
he held confidential talks with Friends on the subject of slavery. On
one occasion, when a colonel of the militia berated the Negroes'
slothful disposition, Woolman replied that free men, whose minds are
properly on their business, find a satisfaction in improving,
cultivating, and providing for their families; whereas Negroes,
laboring to support others, and expecting nothing but slavery during
life, have not