Tuesday 23rd August is designated by UNESCO as International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.
John Wesley was ahead of his time in his abhorrence of slavery. In fact, his last letter was to William Wilberforce MP on 24th February 1791, just six days before he died. At that time, Wilberforce was attempting to pass a bill of abolition and Wesley wrote to support and encourage him. Here is an extract:
“If God be for you, who can be against you?……O be not weary of well doing. Go on, in the Name of God, and in the power of His might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.
Reading this morning a tract wrote by a poor African, I was particularly struck by that circumstance, that a man who has a black skin, can have no redress; it being a law in all our Colonies that the oath of a black against a white goes for nothing. What villainy is this!…”
Wesley had met slaves when he visited Georgia in 1736, he preached on the subject and wrote a paper calling for its abolition. He dismissed the general opinion of the day that Africans were uncivilised, with no culture and the false justifications people used to keep slavery going. Wesley believed that everyone was made in the image of God and so should be treated with dignity, respect and equality.
I have learnt, partly through studying this topic with Rev Joan Pell during lockdown, that although of course all lives matter, the pendulum has swung against black people for so long, that in order for equality to be restored, it has to swing in their favour.
John Campbell has written some very moving words that can be sung to the tune ‘Woodlands’ (Tell out my soul) based on the cry of George Floyd ‘I can’t breathe!’ when he was pinned down, and killed by police. It goes on to echo the same call reflecting on the stifling conditions of the slave ships.
The final verse hopes for a world where no one is unjustly killed and peace and justice reign. I am proud to think that Wesley had the courage to stand out in support for the abolition of slavery especially when he was weak and at the end of his life. But I wonder how far we have come as a society and as a church in the last two centuries. Are our churches and our leadership teams a reflection of the communities we serve? And if not, why not?