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“The Flame of Life Was Kindled in All Animal and Sensitive Creatures”: One Quaker Colonist's View of Animal Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2020

Geoffrey Plank
Geoffrey Plank*
Affiliation:
University of Cincinnati
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Extract

In the winter of 1771, the colonial assembly of Pennsylvania received a petition from voters in Lancaster County asking for the construction of a turnpike from the Susquehanna River to Philadelphia. Supporters of the project believed that the new road would spur economic development, and in support of this claim they cited developments in England. England's turnpikes, they argued, had made long-distance travel efficient and safe, had contributed to an expansion of commerce and manufacturing, and had increased the value of agricultural land. Shortly after these claims were published in the Pennsylvania Gazette, John Woolman, a Quaker reformer in Mount Holly, New Jersey, began hearing troubling stories about the English roads. Woolman was best known as an opponent of slavery, but in his writings and travels he had voiced concerns on an array of other economic issues, including exploitative labor relations generally, and the overwork and abuse of animals. In 1772, Woolman was planning to travel in England, and thus he had reason to pay attention to reports about the English roads.

One of the innovations of England's turnpike era was the “flying coach.” This was a carriage pulled by a team of six horses, and it achieved efficiency not so much by running fast as by starting early in the morning and going for long hours continuously. Woolman heard that flying coaches could cover one hundred miles in twenty-four hours, and that they “often run over foot people in the dark.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 76 , Issue 3 , September 2007 , pp. 569 - 590
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 2007

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References

1. I would like to thank the Charles Phelps Taft Memorial Fund for supporting my research.

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55. See Moulton, ed., Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman, 120-21; Cadbury, John Woolman in England, 95-96, 98.

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68. John Woolman, “Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes Recommende to the Professors of Christianity of Every Denomination,” in Moulton, ed., Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman, 198-209, 198.

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82. Moulton, ed., Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman, 179.

83. See, for example, Mary Barnard's poem, October 25, 1772, quoted in Cadbury John Woolman in England, 98-99; and more fully (without attribution) in Memoirs of William and Nathan Hunt, Taken Chiefly from their Journals and Letters (Philadelphia: Uria Hunt and Son, 1858), 156-59.Google Scholar

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85. Samuel Tuke to Henry Tuke Mennell, 1851, in Cadbury, John Woolman in England, 119.

86. Testimony of the York Quarterly Meeting, March 25, 1773, in Gummere, ed. Journal and Essays of John Woolman, 327.

87. Moulton, ed., Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman, 185, paraphrasing Isaiah 11:9.

88. Isaiah 11:6-7.

89. See Moulton, ed., Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman, 126.

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92. Woolman, Considerations on the True Harmony of Mankind, 30, citing Joel 2:25

93. Woolman, “Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes,” in Moulton, ed. Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman, 207.

94. See Lanier, Gabrielle M., The Delaware Valley in the Early Republic: Architecture, Landscape, and Regional Identity (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), 104-64.Google Scholar

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96. Account of Woolman's illness and death, in Moulton, ed., Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman, 301-6, 304.

97. Ibid., 190.

98. Ibid., 184. He had made such prayers before: see Woolman, Considerations on the True Harmony of Mankind, 4-5.

99. Silvester Thompson to his father, 25 February 1842, ms 335, f. 171, FHL. For another indication of Woolman's preference for staying in “remote” homes, see Mary Andrews Book of Extracts, 14, FHL.

100. Moulton, ed., Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman, 183, n. 7; 274. See Woolman, John, The Works of John Woolman, in Two Parts (Philadelphia, Pa.: Joseph Crukshank 1774), 231.Google Scholar

101. Compare Woolman, John, The Works of John Woolman in Two Parts, 1st ed. (London: T. Letchworth, 1775), 126, 196, 198-202Google Scholar, with Woolman, , Works of John Woolman in Two Parts (Philadelphia, 1774), 139-41, 229-31, 239-44Google Scholar; and Moulton, ed., Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman, 119-21, 185-88, 189-92.

102. Minutes of the Morning Meeting of the London Yearly Meeting, 6:224-25 (February 13, 20, and 27, 1775); and Minutes of the Morning Meeting of the London Yearly Meeting, 6:230 (May 15, 1775), FHL.

103. Minutes of the Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting, 5:192 (March 30, 1775), and 5:202 (June 29, 1775), Special Collections, Leeds University Library; Minutes of the Mornin Meeting of the London Yearly Meeting, 6:234-35 (July 24, 1775), FHL.

104. “Advertisement to the Reader,” in Works of John Woolman in Two Parts, 1st ed. (London, 1775), iiiGoogle Scholar; see also Minutes of the Morning Meeting of the London Yearly Meeting, 6:236-37 (August 14 and 28, 1775), FHL.

105. Minutes of the Meeting for Sufferings of the London Yearly Meeting, 34:136-39 (September 8, 1775), FHL.

106. See Elihu Robinson's Diary, entry for June 2 (“3d day”), 1772; William Foster to Rebecca Haydock, 16 August 1772, ms vol. 77, f. 2; William Foster to William Birkbeck, Jr., July 1772, ms vol. 77, f. 1, FHL.

107. For one indication of the global reach of Woolman's imaginings, see Woolman Considerations on the True Harmony of Mankind, 26.