Wesley Corpus

“It is said secondly, Slavery may begin, by one man’s selling himself to another. And it is true, a man may sell himself to work for another; but he can not sell himself to be a slave, as above defined. Every sale implies an equivalent given to the seller, in lieu of what he transfers to the buyer. But what equivalent can be given for life or liberty? His property likewise, with the very price which he seems to receive, devolves _ipso facto_ to his master, the instant he becomes his slave: in this case therefore the buyer gives nothing. Of what validity then can a sale be, which destroys the very principle upon which all sales are founded?” “We are told, Thirdly, that men may be _born slaves_, by being the children of slaves. But this being built upon the two former rights must fall together with them, if neither captivity, nor contract can by the plain law of nature and reason, reduce the parent to a state of slavery, much less can they reduce the offspring.” It clearly follows, that all slavery is as irreconcileable to justice as to mercy. 4. That slave-holding is utterly inconsistent with mercy, is almost too plain to need a proof. Indeed it is said, “That these negroes being prisoners of war, our captains and factors buy them, merely to save them from being put to death. And is not this mercy?” I answer, 1. Did Sir _John Hawkins_, and many others, seize upon men, women and children, who were at peace in their own fields and houses, merely to save them from death? 2. Was it to save them from death, that they knock’d out the brains of those they could not bring away? 3. Who occasioned and fomented those wars, wherein these poor creatures were taken prisoners? Who excited them by money, by drink, by every possible means, to fall upon one another? Was it not themselves? They know in their own conscience it was, if they have any conscience left. But 4. To bring the matter to a short issue. Can they say before God, That they ever took a single voyage, or bought a single negro from this motive? They cannot, they well know, to get money, not to save lives, was the whole and sole spring of their motions.