October 1, 2020 — November 30, 2020. You can experience John Woolman’s 1763, 200 mi. peacemaking walk to Wyalusing, Pa. by participating in our virtual Walk to Wyalusing, a fundraiser for us and the John Woolman Memorial.
In June 1763, John Woolman journeyed 200 miles from Mt. Holly in (then) West (New) Jersey on a peacemaking visit to (now) Wyalusing, Pennsylvania, a native American village along the Susquehanna River where Papoonhank was Chief of the Munsee tribe of Delaware.
You can experience Woolman’s walk by walking almost that distance around your neighborhood and hearing from 3 speakers on the subject present live online.
Sign up, walk in your neighborhood, post your mileage online between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, cross any of the finish lines (Woolman’s encampments), and receive a t-shirt. Tune in for any or all of the 3 Zoom Webinars and learn about the climate of colonization at the time from multiple perspectives.
The first presentation is next Thursday, October 8th at 7:30 p.m.
The Man
John Woolman was a Quaker minister, writer, teacher, surveyor and tailor from West Jersey. He is best known for his lifelong action to end slavery, and for his Journal, which has been continuously in print since its first publication in 1774. The Journal, has been translated into over 50 languages, and continues to inspire readers throughout the world to bring injustices to light when they are not widely recognized, and to act on their consciences. The John Woolman Memorial is at 99 Branch St., Mt. Holly, NJ. It is listed in the NJ Register of Historic Places.
Woolman wrote,
“Having many Years felt Love in my Heart towards the Natives of this Land, who dwell far back in the Wilderness, whose Ancestors were the Owners and Possessors of the Land where we dwell; and who, for a very small Consideration, assigned their Inheritance to us….”
You can read John Woolman’s journal in print here https://quakerbooks.org/search?q=woolman+journal or online here http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37311.
His Cause
“Love was the first Motion, and thence a Concern arose to spend some Time with the Indians, that I might feel and understand their Life, and the Spirit they live in, if haply I might receive some Instruction from them, or they be in any Degree helped forward by my following the Leadings of Truth amongst them”
Two years before his journey, Woolman was in Philadelphia on a visit to some Friends who had slaves, to convince them to free the slaves. There he met a trading party of Native Americans from Wyalusing and that “…in conversation with them by an interpreter, as also by observations on their countenance and conduct, I believed some of them were measurably acquainted with that divine power which subjects the rough and froward will of creature; and at times I felt inward drawings toward a visit to that place,….”
Our Cause
This virtual race was conceived by the Burlington Quaker Meeting House and Center for Conference (BMH) in Burlington City and is a fundraiser for both it and the John Woolman Memorial in Mount Holly, NJ. Both are run by 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations.
BMH was the first site of the Quakers’ Yearly Meeting in the U.S. and is the resting spot of Lenape Chief Ockanickon, one of 8 chiefs from whom the Quakers bought the land in 1676. Today, the 1783 brick Meeting House is used for Quaker Meeting for Worship, interfaith worship, and worship by other faiths as well as for wedding ceremonies for Quakers, other faiths and same-sex couples. The 1995 Center for Conference is used for both day and overnight gatherings. Because it was built for Quaker youth and family retreats, it includes a hall, commercial kitchen, seminar room, Youth Recreation Room and dormitory of 88 twin-sized beds.
The John Woolman Memorial is a 1783 brick house on property once owned by John Woolman’s daughter, Mary Comfort and a wood frame house relocated to the property and believed to have once been a home of John Woolman. The Memorial serves to share the spirit, vision, integrity and writings of John Woolman In 2018, it was added to the New Jersey Register of Historic Places.
His Team
Woolman was joined by his friend Benjamin Parvin and they travelled to Wyalusing as companions to four Native Americans who were from beyond there, one man and three women, whom Woolman had met one month earlier while they were in Philadelphia on business.
Your Team
Click here for .pdf you can download
If you would like to make a Team of your Meeting, neighborhood or walking buddies, email BMH Director Cie Stroud a group name before signing up the first participant.
Our Team
There will be 3 webinars held during the Walk about the Walk. Participants will have a pass to see them. Others will need to pay-per-view. Speakers include:
Jack Thomas Johnson – Thursday, October 8th at 7:30 p.m. – enrolled member of the Delaware Nation. Born in Oklahoma and now a Philadelphia resident. Jack will give an overview of Native Culture as it existed prior to and early on during the Quaker migration to South Jersey.
Dr. Jean R. Soderlund – Thursday, October 29th at 7:30 p.m. – Dr. Soderlund is a professor of history emeritus at Lehigh University whose most recent book Lenape Country: Delaware Valley Society before William Penn (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015) won the Philip S. Klein Book Prize from the Pennsylvania Historical Association. She has published numerous articles and books on the history of women, African Americans, Native Americans, and Quakers in early Pennsylvania and New Jersey including Quakers and Slavery: A Divided Spirit (Princeton University Press, 1985). Her current book project, “Witnesses of Colonization: Liberty and Death in Early New Jersey,” is a social history of West New Jersey focusing on personal and political interaction among Lenapes, African Americans, and European colonists.
Dr. Soderlund will present “Seeds of Great Calamity”: English Colonization in Lenape Country” — about Quaker attempts to rightfully possess Native lands, at least as the Quakers were able to see it, contrasted with Native perceptions of that activity.
Carol Walz – Thursday, November 19th at 7 p.m. – Carol and her husband Jack Walz served as co-directors of the John Woolman Memorial from 1993 to 2016. She recently retired as Director of Grant Making for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting after 24 years where she says she was “blessed to work every day with individuals whose lives, projects and institutions sought to make the world a better place.” Carol is a lifelong Quaker and current member of Mount Holly Friends Meeting in New Jersey. Carol will speak about Woolman’s hopes for and reflections on the Walk.
Read about how a webinar works and register for it here: https://burlmhcc.org/walk-to-wyalusing-webinar-sign-up/
(Virtual) Start Line
The John Woolman Memorial, 99 Branch St., Mt. Holly, NJ
Virtual Finish Lines
It took Woolman just 11 days, the 6th to 17th of June 1763, to reach Wyalusing.
You can walk all or part of his journey to Wyalusing between October1 and December 31.
Click to see the (virtual) route / encampments / Walk finish lines.
The finish lines are places that the group visited or where they spent the night:
- 8 miles Burlington City, N.J. Where Woolman attends Burlington Meeting and afterwards crosses the Delaware River
- 5 miles Quakertown/Richland Twp., Pa. Home of Samual Foulk where Benjamin Parvin joins Woolman and they join the four Native Americans
- 5 miles Bethlehem, Pa.
- 79 miles (Then Fort Allen) Weissport, Pa.
- 113 miles Wyoming, Pa.
- 150 miles Wyalusing, Pa., as the crow flies
- 200 miles Wyalusing, Pa., having walked it as a winding path as Woolman did
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