February 6, 2016
What is the eternal and ultimate problem of a free society?
It is the problem of the individual who thinks that one man [or woman] cannot possibility make a difference in the destiny of that society.
Norman Cousins
John Woolman’s Story (1720-1772)
Radio Announcer:
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our weekly program, “Voices from The Past.” I am your host, J. C. Bentley, and tonight it is my honor to welcome to our radio microphone Mr. John Woolman. Mr. Woolman, thank you for coming.
John Woolman:
Thee are welcome. It is my pleasure.
Radio Announcer:
First of all, tell us a little about yourself. I understand you were born in 1720.
John Woolman:
Yes, that is correct. I was born in 1720 in colonial New Jersey, long before there was any “United States.” I was raised in New Jersey when I was young, but spent the last twenty years of my life traveling throughout the American colonies, visiting those places where there were members of the Society. I died in 1772, having reached my 52nd birthday.
Radio Announcer:
You say you visited the members of the Society. What do you mean?
John Woolman:
I was a member of the Society of Friends. I believe that thee refers to us as Quakers.
Radio Announcer:
How did you make your living?
John Woolman:
I was a tailor by trade, but the last half of my life I did no tailoring. I was busy doing my real work.
Radio Announcer:
And what was this “real work?”
John Woolman:
One day, with no warning, I gained the knowledge that slavery was an abomination with God, and that members of our faith who held slaves should free them at once.
Radio Announcer:
Gained knowledge? What do you mean when you say you “gained knowledge?”
John Woolman:
God spoke to me and told me.
Radio Announcer:
God spoke to you?
John Woolman:
Yes, that is what I said.
Radio Announcer:
Alright…So God spoke to you. Then what did you do?
John Woolman:
I knew at once what I should do. I would tell the Brethren what God told me, that they must free their slaves. I put a few things in a bag and left home, and only returned twenty years later to die.
Radio Announcer:
How did that go for you? Did they accept your message?
John Woolman:
I must explain something to you. As members of the Society, our most important belief is “God is in every person,” and therefore all persons are children of God. We forgot what we believed, and we were treating Negro slaves not as people but as beasts of burden. It was wrong and, as God told me, an abomination in His Eyes. And no, they did not listen to me.
Radio Announcer:
Did many of the Quakers own slaves?
John Woolman:
Oh yes, I would say most, if not all.
Radio Announcer:
This is surprising. I would have thought that religious people like yourselves, who believed so strongly in equality before God, would never have owned slaves.
John Woolman:
Thee would have thought wrong. Like many others, we said one thing and did another. We came to this land seeking religious liberty, and soon we fell into the trap of materialism and greed. We used slave labor to enrich ourselves.
Radio Announcer:
When you told your brethren that they had to free their slaves, what did they say?
John Woolman:
Some laughted, some shouted, some sent their dogs after me, and some threw me off their property. They did not like hearing what I told them.
Radio Announcer:
And by the end of your life had any slaves been freed?
John Woolman:
No. I never heard of any slaves being freed by Quakers while I was alive.
Radio Personality:
And so, would you say that your life was wasted?
John Woolman:
So it would seem.
Radio Announcer:
In preparation for this interview our research department has been busy tracking down what happened after your passing. We have discovered that within ten years of your death in 1772, your community reached a consensus that no one should hold men and women in bondage, and all their slaves were freed. In 1783 the Quaker community petitioned the Congress of the United States to correct the “complicated evils” and “unrighteous commerce” created by the enslavement of human beings. Starting in 1827 and onward it was the Quakers who played a key role in founding and operating the Underground Railroad, moving thousands of slaves from the south to freedom in Canada. Your words did have an impact on your Brethren, it just took a while for your words to move people to action.
John Woolman:
For twenty years I told the Brethren what they did not want to hear, that they were wrong and needed to change. At the time they were not ready to hear what God wanted them to hear and they paid me no heed. (Pause) With what I have learned tonight it has become clear that the seeds I planted in each heart began to sprout and produce fruit. Now I see that I was able to make a difference. My life was not wasted after all.
Radio Announcer:
Thank you Mr. Woolman.
John Woolman:
Thee are welcome.
Two Remarkable Women Add Their Voices
We can dono great things;
We can only do small things
with great love.
Mother Teresa
How wonderful it is thatNobody need wait a single
Moment before starting to
Improve the world.
Anne Frank
Do What You Can Do
Once John Woolman knew that slavery was an abomination in the Eyes of God, he decided he would spend the rest of his life confronting this evil. But then he came face to face with a truly wicked problem: individuals who choose to attack an institution head-on are, as was Don Quixote, doomed either to irrelevance, abject failure, or the risk of being committed to a mental institution or put in jail.
Woolman’s first step was to consider the basic question: What can I do that may make a difference? His answer? “Since there are many Brethren who hold slaves, I can visit them one at a time and persuade them to free their slaves.” He choose to do what was doable, what he could do, and what held the promise of making a difference.
What Woolman did has a name: it is what I have referred earlier to as “extracting a problem from the mess.” Problems are not apples on trees to be picked. They do not exist independently of human awareness and understanding. Potential problems exist by the dozens in the middle of “messes.” But they only become “problems-to-be-attacked” when they are created by people who care enough about the situation or issue to get down into the swamp of the “mess,” who want to see changes made, and make persistent efforts to bring a problem into existence. And then, and only then, can they begin to make productive efforts.
This is what Woolman did. He cared deeply about the evils of slavery, but he also sensed that he could not attack it successfully. So he ignored the larger institution and defined a problem he could attack: Brethren who own slaves. Then his action plan came into focus: “I will visit my slave-holding Brethren and persuade them to free their slaves.”
When we find ourselves in the middle of a “mess,” we have, as did Woolman, several questions to address:
- What manageable part of this chaotic and confusing situation do I really care about?
- Can I define it in a way that I can bring to it what I have to offer?
Answers to these questions can lead us to a problem definition that, as we struggle with it, offers us a real hope of making a difference.