[In the following essay, Smith studies Thoughts upon Slavery, examining its structure, publication history, and critical reception, and then describes other anti-slavery works by Wesley.]

John Wesley had a social conscience. In his Preface to List of Poetical Works he insisted:

The gospel of Christ knows of no religion, but social; no holiness but social holiness. “Faith working by love” is the length and breadth and depth and height of Christian perfection. “This commandment have we from Christ, that he who loves God, love his brother also;” and that we manifest our love “by doing good unto all men; especially to them that are of the household of faith.”¹

In his Sermon 24 Upon our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, Discourse the Fourth, John Wesley maintained: “Christianity is essentially a social religion, and that to turn it into a solitary one is to destroy it; … that to conceal this religion is impossible, as well as utterly contrary to the design of its author.”²

Thoughts upon Slavery is John Wesley answering a major social ill. Using the best methods of eighteenth-century scholarship, plus logic and common sense, he makes his case and adds to it the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Wesley knew what he was doing. The year was 1744, and using Benezet as his guide, Wesley had carefully prepared his major attack. Slavery was morally indefensible—to say nothing of its being completely at variance with the Christian gospel. Wesley thus published his Thoughts upon Slavery, and the war was on!

To say that Thoughts upon Slavery is an abridgment of Benezet's work is a serious mistake. True, Wesley editorialized, and took sections, but a comparison of the two works gives clear evidence that there is more of Wesley in Thoughts upon Slavery than he has been given credit. Thoughts upon Slavery is Wesley, carefully sorting out his fact—and he has many sources—then presenting the evidence to make his argument. It is a masterful piece. Its success was as enormous as it was important. Its influence was widespread.

Benezet's Historical Account of Guinea was an inspiration for Wesley, and Wesley employed it for about 30 percent of Thoughts upon Slavery. Historical Account of Guinea lacked good organization. It could have benefited by Wesley's systematic approach to the subject. Thoughts upon Slavery was carefully structured.

DESIGN OF THE TEXT

Wesley's format is in five Sections, each with numbered subsections, all prepared in his usual systemic style, a gestalt easy to follow.

Section I is essentially an introduction, with a precise definition of slavery presented in subsections 1 and 2. Subsections 3 and 4 provide a brief history of the institution of slavery. Most of this material comes from Granville Sharp. Francis Hargrave's An Argument in the Case of James Sommersett, a Negro, is likewise paraphrased. There is a juristic note throughout this Section, reflecting the original documents.

Section II begins with an introduction by Wesley:

Such is the nature of slavery; such the beginning of Negro slavery in America. But some may desire to know what kind of country it is from which the Negroes are brought; what sort of men, of what temper and behaviour are they in their own country; and in what manner they are generally procured, carried to, and treated in, America.

Subsection 1 continues the same questioning, What kind of country “is that from whence they are brought? Is it so remarkably horrid, dreary, and barren, that it is a kindness to deliver them out of it?” The purpose is to describe Africa, the real Africa, from which slaves are procured, along with descriptions of the general life of the people. Almost all of subsectons 2 through 11 constitute paraphrases from Benezet's Historical Account of Guinea.

Beginning with the second half of subsection 11, Wesley presents a powerful summation.

Upon the whole, therefore, the Negroes who inhabit the coast of Africa, from the river Senegal to the southern bounds of Angola, are so far from being the stupid, senseless, brutish, lazy barbarians, the fierce, cruel, perfidious savages they have been described, that, on the contrary, they are represented, by them who have no motive to flatter them, as remarkably sensible, considering the few advantages they have for improving their understanding; as industrious to the highest degree, perhaps more so than any other natives of so warm a climate; as fair, just, and honest in all their dealings, unless where white men have taught them to be otherwise; and as far more mild, friendly, and kind to strangers, than any of our forefathers were. Our forefathers! Where shall we find at this day, among the fair-faced natives of Europe, a nation generally practicing the justice, mercy, and truth, which are found among these poor Africans? Suppose the preceding accounts are true (which I see no reason or pretence to doubt of,) and we may leave England and France, to seek genuine honesty in Benin, Congo, or Angola.

Section III is chiefly Wesley's. His intention is to portray “In what manner they are generally procured, carried to, and treated in, America.” Wesley makes use of Benezet's two works, Historical Account of Guinea and a page from A Short Account … of Africa. He likewise employs Sharp's Representation “and this from the original rather than from the excerpt given in Benezet's Guinea.”³

Throughout this Section Wesley made pointed observations. His particular concern is the brutality of the Europeans. He “made effective use of images of the most sadistic torture.”⁴ His conclusions: subsection 2 “That their own parents sell them is utterly false: Whites, not Blacks, are without natural affection!” Subsection 4 maintains, with razor-sharp irony, “Such is the manner wherein the Negroes are procured! Thus the Christians preach the Gospel to the Heathens!” Subsection 6 is summed up, “So that it is no wonder, so many should die in the passage; but rather, that any survive it.” In subsection 7 Wesley asks, in lines worthy of Shakespeare, “Did the Creator intend that the noblest creatures in the visible world should live such a life as this?” Wesley then quotes Milton's Paradise Lost, v. 153, “Are these thy glorious work, Parent of Good?”

The concluding half of Thoughts upon Slavery is chiefly from Wesley. It is a brilliant summation of the practice of slavery.

Section IV, subsection 1, begins, “This is the plain, unaggravated matter of fact. Such is the manner wherein our African slaves are procured; such the manner wherein they are removed from their native land, and wherein they are treated in our plantations.” He continues, “I would now inquire, whether these things can be defended, on the principles of even heathen honesty [a favorite phrase of Wesley]; whether they can be reconciled (setting the Bible out of the question) with any degree of either justice or mercy.” His point is that no authorization can be made by law to substantiate slavery. Subsection 2, “The grand plea is ‘They are authorized by law.’” Wesley is quick to point out, “Notwithstanding ten thousand laws, right is right, and wrong is wrong still.” He then makes pointed reference to the vicious treatment, concluding, in subsection 3, “I strike at the root of this complicated villany; I absolutely deny all slave-holding to be consistent with any degree of natural justice.” Next he turns to the celebrated “Judge Blackstone”—William Blackstone's famous Commentaries on the Laws of England—pointing out the three ancient origins of slavery: capture in war, self-sale, and birth. Wesley proceeds to abridge, heavily, Blackstone, Volume I:411-13. Wesley may have taken the material from Sharp's Representation, pp. 141-44 (but Wesley did know Blackstone firsthand.)⁵

Wesley then stresses the sum and substance of the actual motive in the slave trade, the cause célèbre for the vendors in human flesh: “to get money.” He clearly articulates, in subsection 4, “the whole and sole spring of their motions.”

Wesley is at his eloquent best as he graphically illustrates, in subsection 5, business ethics of eighteenth-century England.

Fifty years ago, one meeting an eminent Statesman in the lobby of the House of Commons, said, “You have been long talking about justice and equity. Pray which is this bill; equity or justice?” He answered very short and plain, “D—n justice; it is necessity.”

Wesley then makes his point:

Here also the slave-holder fixes his foot; here he rests the strength of his cause. “If it is not quite right, yet it must be so; there is an absolute necessity for it. It is necessary we should procure slaves; and when we have procured them, it is necessary to use them with severity, considering their stupidity, stubbornness and wickedness.”

Was it really necessary, in securing wealth, “to violate all the laws of justice, mercy, and truth”? asked Wesley.

In subsection 6, Wesley replies to the old argument that “slaves are necessary for the cultivation of our islands; inasmuch as white men are not able to labour in hot climates.” Wesley fell back on his Georgia experiences, insisting, “I and my family (eight in number) did employ all our spare time there, in felling of trees and clearing of ground, as hard labour as any Negro need be employed in. The German family [Moravians], likewise, forty in number, were employed in all manner of labour. And this was so far from impairing our health, that we all continued perfectly well, while the idle ones round about us were swept away as with a pestilence.” Whites, quite as much as Blacks, were able to withstand the hot climate and hard, manual work.

In subsection 7 Wesley declared:

Better no trade, than trade procured by villany. It is far better to have no wealth, than to gain wealth at the expense of virtue. Better is honest poverty, than all the riches bought by the tears, and sweat, and blood of our fellow creatures.

Wesley cites, in subsection 9, the individual he learned of in America, Hugh Bryan⁶ of South Carolina, who utilized “mildness and gentleness” and consequently his Negroes “loved and reverenced him as a father, and cheerfully obeyed him out of love.” (Wesley here reflects his eighteenth-century naïveté.) He was responding to those who insisted ferocity was necessary because of the Negro's supposed “stupidity, stubborness and wickedness.”

Section V is Wesley's writing, and pointed writing it is. He seeks “to make a little application of the proceeding observations.” He applies common sense, wit, and logic. He implores the captains of slave ships, in subsection 3, “Whatever you lose, lose not your soul: Nothing can countervail that loss. Immediately quit the horrid trade: At all events, be an honest man.”

Wesley then pleads with the merchants, in subsection 4, “Have no more any part in this detestable business. Instantly leave it to those unfeeling wretches who ‘Laugh at human nature and compassion!’⁷ Be you a man, not a wolf, a devourer of the human species!”

In the following subsection, 5, Wesley turns to the upper classes, “And this equally concerns every gentleman that has an estate in our American plantations; yea, all slave-holders, of whatever rank and degree.” He calls them “men-buyers” who are “exactly on a level with men-stealers.” He paused, and continued, “You therefore are guilty, yea, principally guilty, of all these frauds, robberies, and murders. You are the spring that puts the rest in motion.”

In subsection 6, Wesley is at his vibrant best, “Liberty is the right of every human creature, as soon as he breathes the vital air; and no human law can deprive him of that right which he derives from the law of nature.” He drives his point home, “Away with all whips, all chains, all compulsion!”

In subsection 7 Wesley brings his dramatic conclusion. It is a plea to the loving, just, reconciling Deity: “Are not these also the work of thine own hands, the purchase of thy Son's blood? … Thou Saviour of all, make them free, that they may be free indeed!” He then quotes from his brother Charles Wesley's poem of 1758, “For the Heathen,” third stanza.

Thoughts upon Slavery gives rise to a fundamental question, Does Wesley, as does Benezet, romanticize Africa? Are there too many shades of Rousseau's Émile, “God makes all things good; man meddles with them and they become evil”? Is there the Noble Savage? What of Paul and Virginia? Has the Age of Reason created stylized figures, replacing authentic human beings? In short, does Wesley discount the basic problems inherent in all cultures and civilizations? After all, more than one African chief sold captive enemies into slavery. Has Wesley idealized Africa into the Garden of Eden—the Garden prior to the Fall?

Again, the answer lies in eighteenth-century rationalism which blamed Western culture for the stain of sin. Also, Wesley, like an expert barrister, establishes his case against the degradation inflicted upon millions of innocent Africans. If Wesley had a propensity to overwrite, it resulted from his sense of moral outrage at the inhuman slave trade.

PUBLICATION

John Wesley sent a preliminary draft of Thoughts upon Slavery to Granville Sharp, requesting his comments. Sharp replied on December 20, 1773:

Dear sir, I have persued with great satisfaction your little tract against slavery, and am far from thinking that any alteration is necessary. You have very judiciously brought together and digested … some of the principal facts cited by my friend Mr. Benezet and others, which you corroborate with some circumstances within your own knowledge; and have very sensibly drawn up the sum of the whole argument into a small compass, which infinitely increases the power and effect of it …⁸

Sharp offered good business counsel, advising Wesley it would be wise not to imprint Thoughts upon Slavery as part of a collection of similar essays being published by Dilly. Wesley's work would enrich the others, nonetheless Thoughts upon Slavery “will certainly have much more weight with many persons if it be separately printed, and published with your name.”

On January 7, 1774, Granville Sharp wrote to Anthony Benezet regarding Thoughts upon Slavery:

A few days ago he [John Wesley] sent me his manuscript to peruse; which is well drawn up, and he has reduced the substance of the argument respecting the gross iniquity of that trade into a very small compass; his evidence, however, seems chiefly extracted from the authors quoted in your several publications.⁹

Thoughts upon Slavery came from Robert Hawes' press in Lamb Street, London, in January or February of 1774. It was a pamphlet of fifty-three pages in octavo (pages about six-by-nine inches). It sold for a shilling. Sharp had suggested to Wesley that it come out in a smaller—pocket—edition, duodecimo (pages five-by-seven-and-one-half inches). Part of the pamphlet's success was that it had immediate distribution by Methodist preachers throughout Britain.

Thoughts upon Slavery speedily made its way to America. Wesley himself sent a copy to Benezet, probably in February or March. On May 23 the “honest Quaker” replied (the letter was carried by William Dillwyn, a pupil of Benezet):

The Tract thou has lately published entitled, Thoughts on Slavery, afforded me much satisfaction. I was the more especially glad to see it, as the circumstances of the times made it necessary that something on that most weighty subject, not large, but striking and pathetic, should now be published. Wherefore I immediately agreed with the Printer to have it republished here.¹⁰

Thus the first American edition was published the same year that it came from the press in England—1774. It was printed by Benezet's regular agent, Joseph Crukshank. It is remarkable that in so short a time Benezet was to make such wide use of Thoughts upon Slavery as part of his compilation The Potent Enemies of America Laid Open. The American edition appeared: John Wesley, a.m., Thoughts Upon Slavery (London, Printed: Re-printed in Philadelphia, with notes, and sold by Joseph Crukshank. MD,CC,LXXIV.) It was a small volume of eighty-three pages—six-and-one-fourth inches by three-and-one-fourth inches. It is indeed a fascinating volume. Thoughts upon Slavery is reprinted in the first fifty-seven pages. A number of these are filled with copious notes by Benezet. There is also a discussion on slavery taken from Edward Bancroft, an “English physician, who resided some years in that part of America, called Dutch Guiana.” It concludes on page 79. Pages 80-83 form an “Extract of a Sermon preached by the Bishop of Gloucester, before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel at their anniversary meeting, on the 21st of February, 1766.” It is the same document printed in Benezet's Historical Account of Guinea.

It is interesting that Benezet rushed to get Thoughts upon Slavery into print in America. It appears he had few qualms about adding his own notes and other material. Of course, he might have said the same about Wesley's use of his material.

Copies of Thoughts upon Slavery were soon distributed on the Continent. The treatise became widespread. People were, ere long, writing, as well as talking, about Thoughts upon Slavery. Sharp wrote to Dr. Benjamin Rush that he was sending two copies “of Mr. Westley's [sic] Tract ag't. Slavery”¹¹ to Philadelphia. John Horton wrote Charles Wesley, on February 28, 1774: “The Tract on Slavery I saw as soon as published, and expected to have seen your supplement to it; about three hundred were given away at your brother's expense.”¹²

Three more editions of Thoughts upon Slavery appeared in England, this time in the smaller duodecimo, of twenty-eight pages, which sold for twopence each. On May 6, 1774, Wesley wrote, from Whitehaven to London: “I could have sold, if I had had them before the day, more than five hundred Thoughts on Slavery. You should directly send all that remain but ten or twenty, to meet me at Edinburgh, Newcastle, and Scarborough.”¹³

In 1775 Thoughts upon Slavery was reprinted in Dublin. The original shilling octavo edition continued on sale for a number of years, along with other editions. In a 1777 issue of Wesley's catalogs was the advertisement: “137 Thoughts on Slavery, large 1s, small 2d.” (The title varies, as was often the case in Wesley's references to his own publications. The title remained unchanged, even though it sometimes appeared as Thoughts on Slavery.)

As was to be expected, Thoughts upon Slavery was both praised and condemned. There was “speedy and vindictive” opposition in Britain. In America, one author later claimed “it probably exerted a greater influence upon the public conscience than any book ever written, not excepting Uncle Tom's Cabin, for the reception of which it prepared the way.”¹⁴

It must be kept in mind, when reading Thoughts upon Slavery, that John Wesley was revealing his social philosophy to the world. He was presenting his views, giving them his signet, his imprimatur. In short, he was placing his good name “on the line.”

The Monthly Review gave unexpected praise to Wesley for Thoughts upon Slavery:

This pamphlet contains many facts on good authority, or as good as could be found, … and the writer has made many pertinent observations … which do honour to his humanity, the more so as the subject is treated in a liberal manner, without being debased by any peculiar tincture—which was perhaps to be apprehended.¹⁵

John Wesley was being recognized as a prophet—even by his critics.

Quite naturally, there were vituperative retorts. One reader of The Monthly Review, in the October, 1774, issue, a slaveholder, expressed his opinion of Wesley's Thoughts upon Slavery. The correspondent insisted he was kind to his slaves; furthermore Georgia law protected the slaves from unduly severe treatment. He went on, regarding that shocking avowal in Section III, subsection 11, where Wesley had declared, “One gentleman, when I was abroad, thought fit to roast his slave alive!” The reader had no doubt about the truth of the statement, but he had personally not heard of such treatment.

Wesley calmly replied, November 30, 1774, citing two advertisements from the Williamsburg Gazette and a newspaper in North Carolina, whereby a small reward was offered for each slave which had run away, brought back alive, but a considerably larger reward for “his head severed from his body.” Wesley was giving his information from “a letter from Philadelphia” which was before him, dated May 23, 1774, and the letter was from Anthony Benezet.¹⁶

Thoughts upon Slavery was the perennial favorite of antislavery groups everywhere. As the next thirty years passed, at least thirteen new editions appeared in the United States.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Wesley was not content to let a single monograph tell the story. He took every possible opportunity, as in the scathing reference to slavery in his 1775 A Calm Address to Our American Colonies. The Americans insisted they would no longer be slaves. Wesley asked:

“Who then is a slave?” Look into America, and you may easily see. See that Negro, fainting under the load, bleeding under the lash! He is a slave. And is there “no difference” between him and his master? Yes; the one is screaming, “Murder! Slavery!” the other silently bleeds and dies!

“But wherein then consists the difference between liberty and slavery?” Herein: You and I, and the English in general, go where we will, and enjoy the fruit of our labours: This is liberty. The Negro does not: This is slavery.¹⁷

The year 1776 saw Wesley producing A Seasonable Address To The More Serious Part Of The Inhabitants Of Great Britain. The “Unhappy Contest” between Britain and America had only exacerbated the feelings of the two English-speaking peoples. He enumerates the failures and sins of both, reminding them the great monarchies “rose by virtue; but they fell by vice,” and one obvious vice of Britain:

One principal sin of our nation is, the blood that we have shed in Asia, Africa, and America. Here I would beg your serious attention, while I observe, that however extensively pursued, and of long continuance, the African trade may be, it is nevertheless iniquitous from first to last. It is the price of blood! It is a trade of blood, and has stained our land with blood!

He then speaks of East India trade, even “though here is no leading into captivity” as in Africa, the result has been war and plunder. He says:

What millions have fallen by these means, as well as by artificial famine! O earth, cover not thou their blood! … O ye Governors of this great nation, would to God that ye had seen this, and timely done your utmost to separate those tares from the wheat of fair and honest trade!¹⁸

Whether it was African slavery or East India exploitation, it was a sin.

In 1778, Wesley published his A Serious Address To The People of England, With Regard To The State Of The Nation. He reminded them of the fallen state of affairs in many quarters, not the least unhappy situation was the infamous slave trade:

“Nay, but we have also lost our Negro trade.” I would to God it may never be found more! that we may never more steal and sell our brethren like beasts; never murder them by thousands and tens of thousands! O may this worse than Mahometan, worse than Pagan, abomination, be removed from us for ever! Never was anything such a reproach to England since it was a nation, as the having any hand in this execrable traffic.¹⁹

Wesley's interest in African people continued, and he used many means to demonstrate his appreciation for their contribution to the general welfare and cultural uplift. Beginning with 1781 in the Arminian Magazine, Wesley published some nine extracts from Poems by “Miss Phillis Wheatley, a Negro.”²⁰

Captain Richard Williams, who lived “Near Truro, Cornwall,” regarded himself a poet and sent his work to Wesley. “I think the lines on Slavery will do well! They are both sensible and poetical,” wrote Wesley on November 9, 1783.²¹ Unfortunately for Williams his verse did not see the light of day in the Arminian Magazine. Wesley, as is so often the practice of editors, sent the poetry to another. On December 10 Wesley informed Williams, “I have directed your lines to the editor of the General Post. Both he and Mr. Pine [Wesley's printer] will insert in their papers only what they believe will promote the sale of them.”²² Neither the General Post nor a Bristol newspaper saw fit to publish it (an old story with poets and would-be authors).

The Arminian Magazine for July and August of 1788 carried Wesley's “A summary View of the Slave Trade,” a digest of an earlier work, demonstrating the gross inequality and brutishness of the system.

Notes

1. See Jackson, [The] Works, [of the Rev John Wesley,ed. Thomas Jackson, John Mason 1829-1831] XIV, p. 321.

2. See Albert C. Outler, ed., The Bicentennial Edition of the Works of John Wesley, vol. 1, Sermons I, 1-33 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1984), p. 533.

3. See [Frank] Baker, “The Origins, Character, and Influence of John Wesley's Thoughts upon Slavery,” [in Methodist History, vol. XXII, January, 1984] p. 80. His article is referred to throughout this chapter.

4. [David Brion] Davis, [The Problem of] Slavery in Western Culture, [(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1966)] p. 359.

5. Baker, “The Origins, Character, and Influence of John Wesley's Thoughts upon Slavery,” p. 80.

6. See J. Wesley, [Nehemiah Curnock, ed., The] Journal [of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M. (London: Epworth Press, 1938)] I, p. 352, the diary entry for Tuesday, April 26, 1737, “… dined at Hugh Brian's,” (or Bryan).

7. Wesley quoted this line on other occasions. The origin has yet to be found. See Baker, “The Origins, Character, and Influence of John Wesley's Thoughts upon Slavery,” p. 81.

8. See Baker, “The Origins, Character, and Influence of John Wesley's Thoughts upon Slavery,” p. 82. From an undated manuscript draft in Wesley College, Bristol, dated for its publication in Wesley Banner, 1849, p. 140.

9. See [Roger] Anstey, The Atlantic Slave Trade [and British abolition, 1760-1810 (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1975)] p. 240, quoting a letter from Sharp to Benezet, January 7, 1774.

10. Quoted in [George S.] Brookes, Friend Anthony Benezet, [Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1937] p. 85. See also [David Brion] Davis, [The Problem of] Slavery in the Age of Revolution, [1770–1823 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1975)] pp. 233-34.

11. Brookes, Friend Anthony Benezet, p. 447.

12. Manuscript in the Methodist Archives, Manchester.

13. From Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, XXXII, 45.

14. See D. D. Thompson, John Wesley as a Social Reformer (Freeport, N. Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1971 [1898]), p. 47.

15. From Monthly Review, September 1774, pp. 234-37.

16. See Brookes, Friend Anthony Benezet, pp. 105-6. The “Run away” was “a Negro-fellow named Zeb, aged 36 years.”

17. See Jackson, Works, XI, p. 81.

18. Ibid., XI, pp. 125-26.

19. Ibid., XI, p. 145.

20. See Baker, “The Origins, Character, and Influence of John Wesley's Thoughts upon Slavery,” p. 85.

21. J. Wesley, [John Telford, ed., The] Letters, [of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M. (London: The Epworth Press, 1931)] VII, p. 195.

22. Ibid., p. 201.