The Journal of John Woolman: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Journal of John Woolman, credited to John Woolman, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Journal of John Woolman by John Woolman. Read in English by Devon Purtz; PhyllisV; Lucretia B.; Wayne Cooke; Jack Lohr John Woolman was born at Northampton, N. J., in 1720, and died at York, England, in 1772. He was the child of Quaker parents, and from his youth was a zealous member of the Society of Friends. His “Journal,” published in 1774, describes his way of life and the spirit in which he did his work; but his humility prevents him from making clear the importance of the part he played in the movement against slaveholding among the Quakers. In 1742, Woolman, then a young clerk in the employment of a storekeeper in New Jersey, was asked to make out a bill of sale for a negro woman; and the scruples which then occurred to him were the beginning of a life-long activity against the traffic. Shortly afterward he began his laborious foot-journeys, pleading everywhere with his co-religionists, and inspiring others to take up the crusade. The result of the agitation was that the various Yearly Meetings one by one decided that emancipation was a religious duty; and within twenty years after Woolman’s death the practise of slavery had ceased in the Society of Friends. His own words in this “Journal,” of an extraordinary simplicity and charm, are the best expression of his personality. (Summary by The Harvard Classics)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Journal of John Woolman
• Author credits: John Woolman
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 14
• Listed recording duration: 6:35:35

Catalogue topics

• slavery
• journal
• spiritual
• colonial
• colonies
• the harvard classics
• quaker
• society of friends

Track guide

1. 00 - Introductory Note — 2:30
2. 01 - Chapter I — 22:53
3. 02 - Chapter II — 18:17
4. 03 - Chapter III — 30:14
5. 04 - Chapter IV — 41:14
6. 05 - Chapter V — 23:14
7. 06 - Chapter VI — 30:39
8. 07 - Chapter VII — 35:16
9. 08 - Chapter VIII — 1:02:55
10. 09 - Chapter IX — 41:23
11. 10 - Chapter X — 16:51
12. 11 - Chapter XI — 34:49
13. 12 - Chapter XII — 30:44
14. 13 - The Death of John Woolman — 4:36

Listen to this recording

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.