In the year 1774, John Wesley, the celebrated divine, to whose pious
labours the religious world will be long indebted, undertook the cause of
the poor Africans. He had been in America, and had seen and pitied their
hard condition. The work which he gave to the world in consequence, was
entitled Thoughts on Slavery. Mr. Wesley had this great cause much at
heart, and frequently recommended it to the support of those who attended
his useful ministry.
In the year 1776, the abbe Proyart brought out, at Paris, his History of
Loango, and other kingdoms in Africa, in which he did ample justice to the
moral and intellectual character of the natives there.
The same year produced two new friends in England, in the same cause, but
in a line in which no one had yet moved. David Hartley, then a member of
parliament for Hull, and the son of Dr. Hartley who wrote the Essay on Man,
found it impossible any longer to pass over without notice the case of the
oppressed Africans. He had long felt for their wretched condition, and,
availing himself of his legislative situation, he made a motion in the
house of commons, "That the Slave-trade was contrary to the laws of God,
and the rights of men.
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