Fifty-Four years have passed since Samuel Sewall spoke out against slavery. Now it is John Woolman's turn. John Woolman was a member of the Society of Friends, otherwise known as the Quakers. They generally believed in equality of all. There were no priests or ministers. People would gather and sit silently until one felt inspired to speak. Yet some Quakers fell into the habit of becoming Slaveowners. Woolman believed this was against their general beliefs, and spoke out against it. It took some time, but some Quaker congregations followed his beliefs, and Slaveholders were told to free their slaves or be expelled from their congregations.
Compare Woolman's thoughts with those of Sewall, a half century earlier. In what ways do they seem the same, and in what ways different.? Note these differences in your markups and your sticky notes.
I had to give up on the Sewall/Woodman mashup--not enough had finished Woolman, and though I was back, my voice was still partly on holiday. So we'll look at Woolman today, and at the face of slavery as it actually was on Thursday.
The Nat Turner"Rebellion" shook the nation to its core. There had been slave rebellions before and there would be more later, but this still remains the most famous. As you read and markup the "confessions" try to split your brain. Try to think about the slave population--the condition in which they found themselves. We'll do some more thinking about this next week.
Think also about what a rebellion like this meant to the white population in slaveholding states. The video below may help you with this. (Caution: the language is explicit.)
The Rebellion of Nat Turner, may have in the back of Abraham Lincoln's mind when he gave the address to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield. It wasn't the most recent example of mob violence. The incidents he mentions happened in Mississippi, and also his "neck of the woods"-- first in St. Louis, and then in Illinois. Lincoln was 28 when he gave this speech. Was it coincidental the victims about which he spoke primarily were "Negroes" and "Mulattos"? Was he right in the solution he gave against "mob law"? Did later history show him right? Write your thoughts about this in sticky notes on your .pdf before you drop it in your dropbox.
Looking Ahead, we'll consider the situation of slaves and another viewpoint on what to do in the crises of the 1830-1860 period.
