greeable to his mind,
but that the slave being a gift to his wife he had accepted of her."

We may easily conceive that a person so scrupulous and tender on this
subject, (as indeed John Woolman was on all others,) was in the way of
becoming in time more eminently serviceable to his oppressed
fellow-creatures. We have seen already the good seed sown in his heart,
and it seems to have wanted only providential seasons and occurrences to
be brought into productive fruit. Accordingly we find that a journey,
which he took as a minister of the Gospel in 1746 through the provinces
of Maryland, Virginia, and, North Carolina, which were then more noted
than others for the number of slaves in them, contributed to prepare him
as an instrument for the advancement of this great cause. The following
are his own observations upon this journey:--"Two things were remarkable
to me in this journey; first, in regard to my entertainment. When I ate,
drank, and lodged free-cost, with people who lived in ease on the hard
labour of their slaves, I felt uneasy; and, as my mind was inward to the
Lord, I found, from place to place, this uneasiness return upon me at
times through the whole visit. Where the masters bore a good share of
the burden and lived frugally, so that their servants were well provided
for; and their labour moderate, I felt more easy; but where they lived
in a costly way, and laid heavy burdens on their slaves, my exercise was
often great, and I frequently had conversations with them in private
concerning it. Secondly, this trade of importing slaves from their
native country being much encouraged among them, and the white people
and their children so generally living without much labour, was
frequently the subject of my serious thoughts: and I saw in these
southern provinces so many vices and corruptions, increased by this
trade and this way of life, that it appeared to me as a gloom over the
land."

From the year 1747 to the year 1758, he seems to have been occupied
chiefly as a minister of religion, but in the latter year he published a
work upon slave-keeping; and in the same year, while travelling within
the compass of his own monthly meeting, a circumstance happened which
kept alive his attention to the same Subjects.

"About this time" says he, "a person at some distance lying sick, his
brother came to me to write his will. I knew he had slaves, and asking
his brother was told he intended to leave them as slaves to his