John Woolman's Autobiography

I can only recommend this read to those interested in Quakers or Abolitionist-history. Most of the book’s contents are descriptions of his travels, usually to visit other Quakers, and it becomes very repetitive. He visits this town, sees these people, has a meeting where he is inspired by the Divine Love and then moves on. This seems to be the majority of the book, but it’s not the entirety. There are bits and pieces that I found of value; it is certainly interesting to see from the perspective of a Quaker in the 1700’s. But near the end I was definitely more excited to finish and move on than reading the next chapter.

I can’t blame him for his writing as he begins the book by saying he wishes to write something as a testament to his God, and he does so. Many times through his travels he talks about how weak he is, how sad he becomes from seeing slaves and the like, and how God transformed his mind and gave him peace. He also talks about the blessing of frugality, meekness, and the temptations of wealth, which I appreciated as that’s a side of Christianity that we don’t really see these days.

There was one part where he describes an angel coming to him at night, in the form of a sphere of light, and he only writes a sentence or two about it. I wish he talked more about that, it felt strange to mention such an experience and then move on without very much commentary. I don’t think I will revisit this anytime soon.