Here’s a Quaker story for Juneteenth.
When I wrote it, I had read John Woolman’s famous Journal (it’s online here, free, and if thee claims to be a Quaker, or even Quaker curious, Friend, thee should read it too. Here’s also a historian’s sketch of Woolman.).
Like so many, I admired the book, and the author’s witness of pleading with slaveowners to unchain their captives.
But I also wondered: we Quakers celebrate the reports of Woolman succeeding in touching the hearts and consciences of some enslaver Friends’ hearts. But . . . in baseball, even the top sluggers strike out more than they hit home runs. He pursued his quiet crusade until his death in 1772, and his yearly meeting didn’t ban slaveholding til some years after. So in his day, Woolman’s enslaver Friends very likely said No to his appeals much more than they said Yes.
And what about the enslaved? I don’t recall their reactions being recorded.
Here’s where imagination comes in, and melds with wondering: What if Woolman’s leading was called into question, not by a broadbrimmed clearness committee, but by one or more of those still left behind when his speaking truth to power failed to loose their fetters, as it often must have?
The idea for the story took shape from that reading and wondering.
The story was written in 1977, almost fifty years ago. And while they didn’t feel that way then, those were simpler times.
Regardless, the story has circulated for four-plus decades, and to my knowledge, no other story of similar bent has appeared; which is to say, my initial questions are still hanging.
With that lack of report comes my final rationale for doing it, leading: the story felt “right” when written, and still does. Besides, plenty of fiction (good and bad) stirs the waters, and challenges conventional notions.
So Happy Juneteenth for all, and I hope readers find in it some stimulus to their own imagination, wonder, and leadings.
Click the link below to open the story in PDF
John Woolman and the Slave Girl (PDF)
Illustrations for this story are by the late Charlotte Lewis, a distinguished African-American artist.
And a special thanks to Diane Faison, who carries The Spirit of Harriet Tubman, for particular encouragement.
This story is included with more than a dozen others in a collection titled Posies For Peg, available here.