 150 years of political instability  Entrenchment of “English Liberties”  Constitutional balance of power  Tumult over “Liberty”  Hegemony of the Church of England  Toleration of Dissenters – Restrictions on Catholics.  Deism

 Idealised description of African Societies  Justice, morality and order a consequence of Islam and African traditional religion  Cruelty of the slave trade and slavery  Slavery as an institution in ethically wrong  Sets the Bible aside

 All humans have a natural right to liberty therefore all slavery is unjust  Cruelty of slavery is incompatible with mercy  No necessity to mistreat slaves  Slave resistance is a product of natural liberty

 Non-engagement on Biblical exegetical debate  Empirical evidence –  Portray the character of slavery  Falsified the views of slavery’s supporters  No ideal slavery – slavery was the actual existing slavery  The evidence was contested  Wesley ignores the counter arguments

 Natural law and natural liberty  Dominant discourse for interpreting society  Dimension of English identity  Central to the debate on the deregulation of slavery  All people and not only the English have a right to liberty  Argument was contested  Radicalisation of the argument against slavery

 Engagement with a concrete issue.  Ethical analysis influenced by social fracture  Resonance with the context  Non-religious discourse rooted in theology  Particularity and commonality  Public theology and church theology