Experience the American dream with today’s Patriots of the Past interview. I’m your host, John Gillespie.
It’s August 17, 1771. I’m at a slave auction in Richmond, Virginia, with Quaker John Woolman.
JG: “Mr. Woolman, as a Quaker, why are you here?”
JW: “Mr. Gillespie, I am here as an American and as a Christian who believes that slavery is evil. If we are true lovers of liberty, we must speak out and act against it.”
John Woolman and many Quakers, along with a number of founding fathers, did speak out against slavery, taking seventy-five years to end its evil in America.
Read the full text of John Woolman’s journal where he writes about slavery and trying to persuade those who had slaves to stop the practice of buying and keeping them.
John and Jan Gillespie are the founders of the Rawhide Boys’ Ranch; they have fostered 351 teenagers and wrote the book Our 351 Sons; they have also assisted numerous churches in developing youth programs and expanding their total church ministries. After running for U.S. Senate, John founded 1776 American Dream, which exists to demonstrate the vision of our founding fathers and help our generation of youth passionately embrace those values.
