Slavery, in Wesley's time, was strongly supported by the English government. She had enriched herself from the African slave trade. Her great maritime cities were built on the bones, sinews, and flesh, cemented by the blood, of oppressed bondmen. To oppose slavery was to oppose the government. Wesley met this gigantic evil with Christian courage. What was true of England was also true of her colonies. He united with Sharp, Clarkson, Wilberforce, and others to oppose the evil. He represented the slave trade as "that execrable sum of all villainies, commonly called the slave trade." American slavery he declared was "the vilest that ever saw the sun." No addresses delivered on the subject, during the days of the greatest antislavery excitement, exceeded in severity those which fell from the lips and were produced by the pen of John Wesley. His _Thoughts on Slavery_ was the keynote of the movement. Wesley's last letter, written only four days before his death, was addressed to Wilberforce, urging him to persevere in the work. It is as follows: LONDON, February 26, 1791. DEAR SIR: Unless the divine Power has raised you up to be an _Athanasius contra mundum_ (Athanasius against the world), I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But "if God be for you, who can be against you?" Are all of them together stronger than God? O, "be not weary in welldoing." 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 written by a poor African, I was particularly struck by this circumstance--that a man who has a black skin, being wronged or outraged by a white man, 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! That He who has guided you from your youth up may continue to strengthen you in this and all things is the prayer, dear sir, of Your affectionate servant, JOHN WESLEY. He represents the slave trade as exceeding in barbarity whatever Christian slaves suffered in Mohammedan countries.