Articles
The Woolman Way
From The Vegan (Autumn 1972 edition)
The Quakers are going walking - along the route to York taken by John
Woolman the Quaker "saint" from New Jersey two hundred years ago. He
chose to walk because he would not use the stage coach service that so
cruelly exploited the post boys and horses.
Though not a vegan
John Woolman's attitude to animals was as far ahead of the accepted
standards of his age as that of vegans today. In the eighteenth century
it was rare for anyone to show compassion for animals. There were no
controls at all over the rearing and slaughtering of animals, many kinds
of cruel sports were commonly enjoyed, cats were skinned alive in the
streets and birds were blinded to make them sing more sweetly in their
cages. In 1809 Lord Erskine was greeted by shouts of derision in the
House of Lords when he sought to introduce laws for the protection of
animals and the Commons ruled it as "a subject not fit for legislation".
So take heart animal defenders, there has been progress.
In his
journal Woolman speaks movingly of his concern for over-worked oxen and
underfed cows, for goaded horses and the live fowls carried for food on
the trans-atlantic boats. If only farmers and vivisectors of today would
listen to his plea "that we do not lessen the sweetness of life in the
animal creation". However he was fully occupied with another area of
cruel exploitation for in his day there was a section of the human race
who were treated as animals are treated today - the negro slaves from
Africa. They were, as animals are today, packed tightly in ships and
transported to foreign lands. Many died on the way in appalling
conditions. They were sold openly in the market places, prodded and
goaded with no thought for their indignity and suffering. Whoever bought
them had absolute rights over them. They were regarded as creatures
whose sole function was to contribute to the physical advantages, so
construed, of their owners, to provide them with food and clothing and
money to buy luxuries and to obtain power in their communities. It is
hard to believe that such activities were accepted as inevitable and
justified by high-minded people, even by the Quakers. However as is
still all too apparent today, man's ability to close his mind to ethical
challenges that threaten his material advantages is practically
unassailable - but not quite. John Woolman made it his major concern to
open the minds of his fellow Quakers to the harm they were doing to
themselves as well as their slaves, and he succeeded. Before his death
in 1772 most Quakers had freed their slaves and shortly after the
holding of slaves was made illegal in that society. Moreover he
demonstrated the validity of a method that could well be studied by all
minority groups who, as the vegans, seek to help the victims of powerful
oppression.
The Woolman way is based firstly on the conviction
that the exploitation of the week by the strong is contrary to the
underlying scheme of things, to what Woolman called Universal
Righteousness. Without some such faith however defined, vegans are on
uncertain ground. If life in all its wonderful and varied manifestations
is just the result of blind chance, is just "a tale told by an idiot,
full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" little inspiration can be
found for challenging its abuse. Only a basic faith in "something not
ourselves that makes for righteousness", whether it be expressed in
religious, philosophical or humanitarian terms can give that enduring
strength to make headway against materialistic self-interest and its
attendant cruelty.
Secondly the Woolman way is based on the
belief that there exists in every man something of that same Universal
Righteousness, that every man however misguided or debased is capable of
showing love and mercy and of responding to Truth. Woolman approached
the slaveowners in that spirit. His love and concern for them was as
great as his pity for the slaves. "He did not condemn them but because
of his faith in them they came to condemn themselves and to change their
ways". Prosperous slave owners freed their slaves overnight after John
Woolman had visited them.
Woolman never sought to evade the
suffering that his sensitivity inevitably brought. He accepted it as
laid upon him and found serenity in obeying the impulse to share his
insights with others, to open their eyes and inspire them to free
themselves and those they exploited from a common bondage to greed.
He recognised as a first obligation "to get his own life in the clear"
as far as possible. Vegans will feel sympathy with his refusal to eat
the sugar produced by slave labour and with his wearing of undyed cloth
because dye was got from mines worked by slaves. Yet he never flaunted
his personal example but always approached others with humility and a
deep desire to avoid hurting them. It required great courage on his part
to recognise that to alienate people was sometimes inevitable - "I saw
that if I was honest to declare that which Truth opened to me, I could
not please all men". But he comforted himself that by "speaking the
truth in love" he was serving the cause of "true" as opposed to
"superficial" friendship. Vegans, who often have to refuse food kindly
offered will appreciate Woolman's refusal to accept hospitality based on
slave labour. Can they speak as he did with sufficient sincerity, love
and humility to be effective without antagonising?
How effective
is the Woolman way? - the way of the conscientious affirmer, the way of
mercy and truth which "is neither indifference to evil nor righteous
indignation but the cultivation of brotherhood". To many it will seem
pitiably week in the face of human greed, love of ease and lust for
power. But violent methods though they may gain greater immediate
advantage provoke negating repercussion. For instance there might be
much truth in the comment "If the abolitionists of the North had shared
not only the zeal of Woolman and his friends but also their patience and
brotherliness in seeking not only to remedy the wrong but to convert the
wrongdoer, one wonders whether the American Civil War could have been
possible", and the colour problem in America today that Woolman foresaw
so clearly might have been avoided.
Today vegans blessed, as was
John Woolman, with a sensitivity in advance of their day, have a cause
such as his. Their strength is based as was his on a vision of Truth and
that the heart of man must in due course respond to Truth. In so far as
they can follow the Woolman way of humility and concern for the
oppressors as well as the oppressed, they can look forward to the day
when the circle of compassion is widened to include not only all men but
all creatures.
(Quotations from "The Wisdom of Woolman" by
Reginald Reynolds)
Reproduced with thanks to the Vegan Society.
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