Abstract

John Woolman (1720–1772) was a White American Quaker who lived in New Jersey and later in Pennsylvania. He worked as a tailor and merchant and advocated for the abolition of slavery as well as several other causes, including animal rights. This chapter is a selection from his most important antislavery work, Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes, the first part of which he published in 1754 (but apparently composed as early as 1746) and the second in 1762. This fascinating and philosophically sophisticated antislavery text touches on issues such as the origins and nature of racial bias, natural rights, equality, the Golden Rule, complicity, and the ways in which the institution of slavery corrupts both enslavers and enslaved people. Some of Woolman’s arguments against slavery are theological, others draw on moral principles and intuitions that are independent of theology.