1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910810747303321

Autore

Plank Geoffrey Gilbert <1960->

Titolo

John Woolman's path to the peaceable kingdom [[electronic resource] ] : a Quaker in the British Empire / / Geoffrey Plank

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Philadelphia, : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2012

ISBN

1-283-89705-9

0-8122-0712-2

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (301 p.)

Collana

Early American Studies

Disciplina

289.6092

B

Soggetti

Quakers - United States

Abolitionists - United States

Society of Friends - United States - History - 18th century

Antislavery movements - United States - History - 18th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Past Ages: History -- Chapter 2. Deserts and Lonely Places: Social Diversion and Solitary Meditation -- Chapter 3. More Than Was Required: Quaker Meetings -- Chapter 4. The Road to Large Business: Family and Work -- Chapter 5. A Dark Gloominess Hanging over the Land: Slavery -- Chapter 6. Men in Military Posture: The Seven Years' War -- Chapter 7. Not in Words Only: Conspicuous Instructive Behavior -- Chapter 8. The Deep: Crossing the Sea -- Chapter 9. A Messenger Sent from the Almighty: England and Death -- Epilogue -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Index -- Acknowledgments

Sommario/riassunto

The abolitionist John Woolman (1720-72) has been described as a "Quaker saint," an isolated mystic, singular even among a singular people. But as historian Geoffrey Plank recounts, this tailor, hog producer, shopkeeper, schoolteacher, and prominent Quaker minister was very much enmeshed in his local community in colonial New Jersey and was alert as well to events throughout the British Empire. Responding to the situation as he saw it, Woolman developed a comprehensive critique of his fellow Quakers and of the imperial



economy, became one of the most emphatic opponents of slaveholding, and helped develop a new form of protest by striving never to spend money in ways that might encourage slavery or other forms of iniquity. Drawing on the diaries of contemporaries, personal correspondence, the minutes of Quaker meetings, business and probate records, pamphlets, and other sources, John Woolman's Path to the Peaceable Kingdom shows that Woolman and his neighbors were far more engaged with the problems of inequality, trade, and warfare than anyone would know just from reading the Quaker's own writings. Although he is famous as an abolitionist, the end of slavery was only part of Woolman's project. Refusing to believe that the pursuit of self-interest could safely guide economic life, Woolman aimed for a miraculous global transformation: a universal disavowal of greed.