SOURCE: Smith, Warren Thomas. “Wesley's Thoughts upon Slavery, 1774.” In John Wesley and Slavery, pp. 90-103. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1986.

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...