In 1772, Quaker tailor John Woolman chose to sleep in a ship's steerage among enslaved people rather than accept comfort built on their suffering. His gentle witness against slavery---expressed through how he dressed, traveled, and conducted business---helped transform the Quakers into America's first religious denomination to oppose slavery. This episode explores how one person's moral clarity can shift an entire community, and asks: whose suffering makes our comfort possible? Though legal slavery no longer exists anywhere on Earth, forced labor still hides in global supply chains. Woolman's question remains urgent: how do we stay awake to our connection with distant others whose labor shapes our lives?

Read the transcript

Share and read comments.