Abolitionists repeatedly invoked the Golden Rule: ‘All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them' (Matthew 7:12).
Obeying this ‘Royal Law of Christ' involved looking at the world from the Other's point of view.
Abolitionist preachers urged their listeners to imagine themselves being enslaved.
The Baptist preacher, Abraham Booth, visualised himself, his family and thousands of his fellow countrymen ‘kidnapped, bought, and sold into a state of cruel slavery'. He was left with a sense of outrage. [33]
The maverick Quaker, Benjamin Lay, even kidnapped a child (temporarily) from its slaving-owning parents to help them see the distress their practice caused!
Thinking about the Golden Rule required people to consider how their actions impacted others, including African slaves on the other side of the Atlantic.
The Methodist, Samuel Bradburn, observed to his horror that though he had ‘always abhorred slavery in every shape', he had been ‘in some degree accessory to the Bondage, Torture and Death of myriads of human beings by assisting to consume the produce of their labour, their tears, and their blood!'
He asked God's pardon, and hoped that by boycotting sugar he could ‘make some restitution for my former want of attention to my duty in this respect'. [34]
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