By the breaking in of enraged merciless armies, flourishing countries have been laid waste, great numbers of people have perished in a short time, and many more have been pressed with poverty and grief.

John Woolman (October 19 1720 - October 7 1772) was a North American merchant tailor journalist and itinerant Quaker preacher and an early abolitionist in the colonial era. In 1772 Woolman traveled to England where he urged Quakers to support abolition of slavery.