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." In order that he might interest the members as much as possible in his motion, he had previously obtained some of the chains in use in this cruel traffic, and had laid them upon the table of the House of Commons.

His motion was seconded by that great patriot and philanthropist, Sir George Saville.
But though I am now to state that it failed, I cannot but consider it as a matter of pleasing reflection, that this great subject was first introduced into parliament by those who were worthy of it; by those who had clean hands and an irreproachable character, and to whom no motive of party or faction could be imputed, but only such as must have arisen from a love of justice, a true feeling of humanity, and a proper sense of religion.
About this time two others, men of great talents and learning, promoted the cause of the injured Africans, by the manner in which they introduced them to notice in their respective works.
Dr.Adam Smith, in his _Theory of Moral Sentiments_, had, so early as the year 1759, held them up in an honourable, and their tyrants in a degrading light.