John Woolman was born in a farming community fifteen miles east of Philadelphia. Until he was 20 years old, he worked as a shop assistant and practiced Quaker religious life. At 21, he became an informal lay minister of the Society of Friends. For 30 years he followed this ministry. His itinerant journey led Woolman up and down the Atlantic coast, visiting Friends’ meetings from Maine to South Carolina.

Woolman also employed his religious zeal for social justice. He had such a drive to be pure of social evil that he rejected all temptations to sin, in every manner of his life. Woolman’s desire to avoid the oppression of the poor led him to self-denial. He traveled among the Native Americans because he felt that they were disenfranchised and treated unjustly because of greed for their land. He did not wear dyed clothes in order to identify with the workers who handled dyes that were harmful to them. In order to be like Christ and to appear in the form of a servant, he was determined to go on foot to many of his preaching obligations. His religious zeal for the souls of the people is demonstrated by one three-month period when he traveled 1500 miles to make people aware of the Gospel of Christ. He was troubled by the presence of slavery in America. His effort not to trade with exploiters or the oppressors of African-Americans led him to refuse to eat sugar prepared and paid for by slave labor. Woolman, while not well known, was a pioneer in the anti-slavery and abolitionist movements in the United States. Woolman died of smallpox in England in 1772, faithful to his discipline and rule of life. On his window a burst of light, as witnessed in the inner light of the cross, is depicted on the shield. In the circle, a shaft of light breaks a slave’s chain. Two kneeling meditating figures, a black man and white man, represent human and spiritual unity, recalling that Woolman was a pioneer in the anti-slavery movement. On the diamonds is presented a basket with bread and a sheaf of wheat which represents the Friends tradition of practical piety and fruitful service.