August Woolman

RantWoman is a VERY bad Friend.


For one thing, RantWoman is looking to upgrade one or more of her electronic gizmos. RantWoman would prefer one not produced by Chinese slaves, but...

For another thing, RantWoman is utterly delighted by the account supplied at our most recent meeting by another member of the group that is reading John Woolman's journal, of the 1730 session of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. John Woolman would have been 10 years old but history does not record whehter he witnessed the Friend who stood up in session in a traditional Quaker cloak, gave a speech against slavery, and said people who kept slaves might as well do as he was doing. At the end of his speech, he threw off his cloak to reveal full military regalia, drew a sword , and stabbed a hollowed out book in which he had placed a bladder of some kind of red liquid that splattered all over Friends nearby.

But more than being a fan of flamboyant protest in almost any era, RantWoman is thinking ahead. The Woolman reading group has agreed to prepare three Adult Education sessions at the beginning of November. RantWoman is pretty sure the group will be delivered of slightly different titles than what has come to RantWoman:

Disease, Pestilence, Ecological Stresses and Transportation Difficulties in the age of John Woolman

How do you say "John Woolman is a crashing Boor and a real drag to be around" in 18th century Quakerese: reflections from the journals of the slow to convert and those unimpressed by John Woolman. (RantWoman, more's the pity, has no capacity actually to research this, but...
The Actual Life and Ministry of John Woolman


Stay tuned?



For next month we will be reading Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes. RantWoman is delighted by the variety of e-formats in which it is available: http://www.archive.org/stream/considerationson00wool/considerationson00wool_djvu.txt