Sister Ruth’s Stories, or, Evenings with John Woolman (1865) and Juvenile Literature of Domestic Abolitionism

Abstract

Juvenile literature of “domestic abolitionism” seems to be one of the most interesting, yet under-researched branches of American abolitionist literature. Domestic abolitionist authors were usually women, who often published their texts anonymously or assuming pseudonyms. Diverse as they are in terms of genre, these texts share a set of common features. Among these features, according to Deborah De Rosa, is employment of three overarching images: the abolitionist mother-historian, the slave child, the white child. The mother-historian tells stories to foster “a change of hearts” of her young listeners, to inspire their empathy for their enslaved peers, and to engage them in the abolitionist cause. This paper focuses on semi-anonymous Sister Ruth’s Stories, or, Evenings with John Woolman (1865) — a domestic abolitionist text, which seems to have been overlooked in literary studies so far. Sister Ruth’s Stories are constructed as a sequence of evening conversations between Sister Ruth (“Motherhistorian”) and her younger siblings. The topic of these conversations is life of John Woolman (1720 –1772), a famous Quaker minister and proto-abolitionist. Sister Ruth retells children the plot of Woolman’s Journal, describing his personal campaign against slavery. She comments upon this autobiographical text, embellishing it with some additional sentimental scenes, biblical and poetical allusions. In Sister Ruth’s Stories, didacticism of domestic abolitionist literature seems to be counterbalanced by the multi-voice chorus of Ruth’s listeners, with their unfeigned reactions to the stories. As for revision of national history, which is also a substantial part of domestic abolitionist literature, it plays a pivotal role in the book, and yet appears moderate. Published in the last year of the Civil War, Sister Ruth’s Stories seem to embrace both abolitionist and pacifist messages of John Woolman’s Journal.

Keywords

• john woolman
• journal
• abolitionism
• quakerism
• juvenile literature
• didactic literature
• american literary history