(i) Wesley's Attacks on Slavery
CHAPTER XII
THE PREACHING OF SOCIAL RIGHTEOUSNESS
Because Wesley lived always in the consciousness of the spiritual world, and sought ever to bring individual souls into communion with God by means of individual conversions, it often is assumed, if not glibly asserted, that he had but small understanding of worldly affairs, that social questions were of little or no concern to him, and that really he turned the minds and efforts of multitudes away from the vital problems of life, to fix them upon an ethereal dream of blessedness beyond the grave.
Such an assumption represents a contortion of truth.
It contains too little veracity for even the sorriest caricature.
Wesley pre-eminently was a practical man ; never did he dodge the problems of life ; he was drawn into closer and longer contact with the common people, all over the kingdom, than any other character of his century ; and his vivid consciousness of Heaven and immortality, provided him with a prototype for all human relationships on earth : it gave dignity and high import to every social, political, economic and financial question surrounding and perplexing the life of man.
Those economists and social historians who airily brush Wesley aside as a fanatical enthusiast, hopelessly out of touch with the practical problems of life, are reflecting not on Wesley but on themselves: for they show clearly their ignorance of documentary evidence in which they should be versed.
(i) Wesley's Attacks on Slavery Wesley being the central leader of the Evangelical Revival, and that revival in turn being—as later will appear—the central inspiration both of the abolition of the Empire slave trade (1807) and of the emancipation of Empire slaves (1833-4), it follows that his teaching on this subject is of peculiar and commanding interest.
In 1774, thirteen years before the famous Abolition Committee was formed, Wesley published his succinct, penetrating treatise, Thoughts Upon Slavery: and so direct, so graphic, so vehement, is the argument therein expressed that a sensitive reader perusing it, even to-day, must almost hear Wesley's voice and feel the throb of his heart.
After an historical and a
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restrained though ghastly portrayal of the inhumanity of slavery, he pierces prophetically to the moral issues involved.
Countering the argument that the slave traffic was a legitimate business, he asks : "' Can human Jaw turn darkness into light or evil into good?
Notwithstanding ten thousand laws, right is right and wrong is wrong still.
. I absolutely deny all slave-holding to be consistent with any degree of even natural justice."1
The whole business," he affirms, was pursued " to get money," and its excuses were '"'empty and hypocritical."
''I deny that villainy is ever necessary," he expostulates; "'a man can be under no necessity of degrading himself into a wolf!"
Proceeding, he dealt a timely blow at such " loyalty "' as conceives Empire and patriotism in terms only of mercantile or geographical expansion, for concerning the British West Indies he urged : "It is better that all these islands should remain uncultivated for ever ; yea, it were more desirable that they were all together sunk in the depth of the sea than that they should be cultivated at so high a price as the violation of justice, mercy and truth.''® Wesley being bred and educated in an ultra-conservative environment, his whole tradition of life was conservative : even his conversion never completely freed him from this traditional bias.
As in the famous cases of Luther and Descartes, many of the influences of early training and background survived catastrophic change; yet when national custom or social sanction obviously blocked the road to liberty and progress,
Wesley's religious convictions compelled him to become a radical reformer.
'" Are not stubbornness, cunning, pilfering and divers other vices the natural and necessary fruits of slavery ?'' he demands ; and addressing the slave owners, he asks : '' What wonder if they (your slaves) should cut your throats?
And if they did, whom could you blame for it but yourselves? 4
As for slave merchants, he reminds them that "' men-buyers are on a level with men-stealers."' "You know," he continues, "' that your slaves are procured by means nothing near so innocent as picking of pockets, house-breaking or robbery upon the highway.''®
Now, remembering that for decades following the printing of this treatise, the slave-trade was protected by law, and that the said merchants were eminently wealthy and " respectable " citizens, we realise that Wesley's language was scarcely " parliamentary."
Indeed, two generations later his disciple, Rev.
1J. Wesley, Thoughts upon Slaver - 34-5. ely ip
See, too, the publication Africanus for fearful details.
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22)7, J. R. Stephens, of Factory Reform and Anti-Poor Law fame, was clapped into prison for language only a few shades more provocative than that of his great spiritual father.
But reverting to these slave merchants, Wesley further exclaimed : " You are the spring that puts all the rest in motion—captains, slave owners, kidnappers, murderers. ... 'Thy brother's blood crieth unto thee.'
. Thy hands, thy bed, thy furniture, thy house, thy lands are at present stained with blood.
. Whether you are a Christian or not, show yourself a man; be not more savage than a lion or a bear.''!
Slave-ship captains and plantation owners came under a condemnation quite as castigating as slave merchants; while some judges, Wesley protested, " are often " the slaves' " greatest tyrants."
"' Are any laws so binding as the eternal laws of justice ? " he asks ; while as for Liberty, he proclaims it! " the right of every human creature as soon as he breathes the vital air."° Countering the inevitable excuse that English slavery was more humane than that of other countries, Wesley marshalled evidence completely demolishing this subterfuge and proving conclusively that "' conditions under English masters are no better than under French or Dutch."
The " grand idol" of the whole traffic, he avowed, was " the god of gain," and all its supporters he impeached as " petty tyrants over human freedom."* 'The luxurious grandeur, '' of which the slave's misery forms so large a part," was under the scourge of heaven ; and it was the work of all true Christians to proclaim the Liberty of Heaven and act as instruments of God for the suppression of slavery.
"' Give liberty," cried Wesley, "to whom liberty is due, that is, to every child of man, to every partaker of human nature.
Let none serve you but by his own act and deed, by his own voluntary choice.
Away with all whips, all chains, all compulsion.
Be gentle toward all men."
In other publications, where Wesley deals with the slave traffic, his denunciations are equally piquant.
In his Serious Address to the People of England with regard to the State of the Nation, written in 1777 during the high tumult of the American Revolutionary War, he answers poignantly the lamentations over a marked loss in the slave trade.
'' I would to God," he thunders, "' that 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 Mohammedan, worse than pagan abomination, be removed 1 Thoughts upon Slavery, p. 55. ae 2 Ibid., p. 67 ; cf. Blackstone's judgment, see chapter vi, parts (i) and (ii).
3 Tbid., pp. 76 and 56.
4 Ibid., pp. 81-2.
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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."!
A bit later, he breaks into a half-humorous but wholly characteristic irony :
" And we can no longer sell our brethren like sheep, and pour out their blood like water.
Therefore the nation is in a desperate state!
Therefore we are on the brink of ruin!
And are these the best arguments that can be brought forward to support the lamentable conclusion ? ''?
Three times, in the course of this Address, Wesley reverted to the national disgrace of slavery ; and, concluding, he dealt a giant blow:
'" With respect to trade of the West Indies, you may grant it is greatly decreased.
The planters there cannot carry on their trade of buying the bodies and souls of men.
God grant (for the honour of our country and religion) that they may never be able to carry iton more!
The total, final destruction of this horrid trade would rejoice every lover of mankind : yea, though our sugar islands (so the inhabitants escaped) were swallowed up in the depths of the sea.
Certain it is that England may not only subsist but abundantly prosper without them— may increase in population, agriculture, manufactures, and all other articles above-mentioned, though we no more suck the blood and devour the flesh of the less barbarous Africans.
O earth, hide not their blood, and no more cover their shame ! "8
In John Wesley, the negro slaves found a veritable Daniel come to judgment.
Even at as early a date as the writing of Thoughts Upon Slavery, Wesley was revered by more people and influenced more consciences than any other man in England : yet every one of his followers was taught to regard the negro slave as a "' brother in Christ."
Nor was it any accident that the '"' Great Emancipator '' was a spiritual son of Wesley, or that the mighty prophet's last letter, written but six days ere death, was addressed to Wilberforce :
"Unless the Divine Power has raised you up to be as Athanasius, contra mundum, I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature.
Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils ; but if God be for you, who can be against you?
Are all of them together stronger than God?
Oh, be not weary in well doing.
Go on, in the name of God and in the power of His might, 1 Op. cit., p. 15.
2 Serious Address, etc., p. 18.
8 Tbid., p. 28.