John Wesley’s Thoughts on Slavery Essay

Introduction fanny Wesley was an ordained minister of the Anglican Church in England in the eighteenth century. He is considered as the founder of the Methodist movement. The Methodist movement started out at Oxford University where tin Wesley, his brother Charles and other like-minded individuals began gathering together for prayer and for ghostlike purposes through what they called the Holy Club. They practiced discipline in observe the sacraments of the church they conducted regular outreach programs designed for the elderly, the prisoners, the sick and other disenfranchised members of the inn (Pollock, 1989).Although the Methodist movement floundered in England during the time spent by John Wesley in Georgia in America, it gained new strength upon his return in the 1740s. Because of his new found fervor upon hearing Martin Luthers preface to the bear of Romans, he began his itinerant lecture and traveled extensively throughout England preaching to the highest degree the C hristian faith (Pollock, 1989). John Wesley and Slavery John Wesley was remote to debauchery and the drinking of wine. In addition, his sermons and his writings were also opposed to slavery.When Wesley was in the British colony of Georgia, he saw the way that masters sell their slaves as well as the way in which these slaves were sold as cattle. In 1774, John Wesley published one of his reflections entitled Thoughts on Slavery. On this pamphlet, he expounded on the slave tradehow the slaves were taken from their native lands and transported to the spic-and-span World to provide important workforce for the plantations. He condemned slavery as an act which cannot be reconciled with Justice and Mercy (Brycchan Carey, 2002).In the verbalize pamphlet, John Wesley appealed to both slave-traders and slave owners to stop the practice and he unlikable with a written prayer for their soul. In this address to the slave-traders, Wesleys accusations and dispensations were ardent and unrele nting. He lamented the lack of compassion in the slave traders because of the way that they march the slaves (Brycchan Carey, 2002). Wesleys opposition to slavery even led him to commit his uphold to the Abolitionist movement. The abolitionist movement grew in power and magnitude towards the fire of the 1780s.At this time, John Wesley risked his personal safety by preaching on the matter of slavery and condemning such practice in Bristol, which was thus a trading port for slaves. During this sermon, there was uproar among the people, which Wesley described in supernatural terms as the way that Satan fights for his kingdom. This uproar, however, could have been caused by the slave-traders whose operations were just around the area where John Wesley was preaching (Brycchan Carey, 2002). decisiveness Until the end of his life, John Wesley fervently condemned and opposed slavery.The pamphlet he wrote about his Thoughts on Slavery was published once more before he died. His anti-sla very stance was carried on by the followers of the movement he foundedMethodism. As the Methodists continue to gain strength and following all throughout England, and later in the United States, Wesleys thoughts on slavery became even more popular and added momentum to the move to abolish slavery.Reference Brycchan Carey (2002). John Wesley Biography. Retrieved 17 Sept 2007 from http//www. brycchancarey. com/abolition/wesley. htm. Pollock, J. (1989). Wesley the Preacher. London Lion.