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This part of the History list within the Cambridge Library Collection focuses on the practices of slave-trading and slave-holding during the colonial period and their eventual abolition: it is sometimes forgotten that the efforts of the British emancipation movement were not finally successful until 1833, 26 years after the trade in slaves was outlawed. The series contains eye-witness accounts of the conditions endured by slaves on board ship across the Atlantic and on the plantations of the Caribbean and the Americas, including testimonies by former slaves, both male and female. It includes publications arguing for and against abolition by social reformers such as Clarkson and Wilberforce, and by plantation owners and commodity merchants. In addition, there are reports of naval expeditions targeting slave traders and of the judicial proceedings against individuals accused of human trafficking. Further context is provided by books on the geography, history, society, laws and economics of these regions from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century.

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82 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Slavery and Abolition

Page 3 of 5

The Life of William Wilberforce
  • Volume 4
  • Edited by Robert Isaac Wilberforce, Samuel Wilberforce
  • William Wilberforce
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    13 January 2011
    First published in:
    1838
  • William Wilberforce (1759–1833) was a politician, philanthropist and evangelical Christian, now best known for his work to end the slave trade. Elected to Parliament in 1780, he campaigned unsuccessfully for penal and electoral reform. In 1787, at the encouragement of his friend William Pitt, he took up the cause of abolition at Westminster and lobbied influential people tirelessly, but humanitarian and ethical arguments were slow to overcome the economic interests of those who had made fortunes from the slave trade or the use of slave labour. It was not until 1807 that the Abolition Bill was finally passed. Wilberforce continued his work for emancipation, and also campaigned for religious liberty. This biography, based on his own writings, was published by two of his sons in 1838, but sheds more light on religious than on political aspects of his life. Volume 4 covers the period from 1812 to 1818.

Facts and Documents Connected with the Late Insurrection in Jamaica
  • With a Narrative of Events since the First of August, 1834
  • James Williams
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    11 October 2012
    First published in:
    1837
  • The Christmas Rebellion (1831–2) saw the uprising of 60,000 Jamaican slaves, many of them followers of one Baptist preacher. Initially intended only as a peaceful strike, it escalated as estates were burned down and plantation owners killed. This 1832 pamphlet details the violence and persecution directed against nonconformists and missionaries, who were regarded as having been sympathetic towards the revolt. The materials were published by William Knibb, a Baptist minister, who in 1832 was summoned to appear before parliamentary committees investigating the state of the Caribbean colonies. His evidence and the rebellion itself are regarded as having quickened the pace of emancipation in Jamaica. The documents are reissued here with an 1837 narrative by James Williams, a youth who became an apprentice under the system that replaced slavery. He describes how conditions for former slaves were little improved, with many instances of harsh treatment and unjust imprisonment.

Slavery
  • William Ellery Channing
  • Published online:
    05 April 2014
    Print publication:
    29 August 2013
    First published in:
    1836
  • In the years preceding the American Civil War, religion was at the heart of the debate over slavery. William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) had rejected the strict Calvinism of his background to become the leading Unitarian spokesman and preacher, and in later life he began to address the subject of slavery. Published in 1836, this work was Channing's most substantial contribution to the debate, revealing the real difficulties men such as Channing had in questioning a practice with which they had grown up. He vacillates between contempt for the institution and empathy for the slaveholders, writing, 'I do not intend to pass sentence on the character of the slave-holder.' He sees black slaves as humans, but not of equal status with white people. The final chapter is particularly prescient: 'There is a great dread … that the union of the States may be dissolved by the conflict about slavery.'

Journal of a West India Proprietor
  • Kept During a Residence in the Island of Jamaica
  • Matthew Gregory Lewis
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    09 December 2010
    First published in:
    1834
  • Matthew 'Monk' Lewis (1775–1818) is best known as a writer of plays and 'Gothic' novels such as The Monk (from which he acquired his nickname). On the death of his father in 1812, he inherited a large fortune, including estates in Jamaica. He spent four months there in 1815, during which time much of this Journal of a West India Proprietor was written. He became interested in the condition of the slaves on his estates, and on returning to England made contact with William Wilberforce and other abolitionists. The improvements he made on his own estates were unpopular with other landholders, but foreshadowed the reforms of the 1830s, when the Journal was published. He revisited the island in 1817, but died of yellow fever on the way home. S. T. Coleridge regarded the Journal as Lewis' best work, and the one most likely to be of lasting value.

The Slavery of the British West India Colonies Delineated
  • As it Exists Both in Law and Practice, and Compared with the Slavery of Other Countries, Antient and Modern
  • Volume 2, Being a Delineation of the State in Point of Practice
  • James Stephen
  • Published online:
    07 October 2011
    Print publication:
    30 September 2010
    First published in:
    1830
  • The lawyer and leading abolitionist James Stephen (1758–1832) published Volume 2 of The Slavery of the British West India Colonies Delineated in 1830. The volume is an exposure of the cruel and oppressive practice of slavery in the British West Indies. It investigates the living conditions, feeding and clothing of slave populations; the brutal practices, such as 'slave driving', involved in forcing labour; and, by comparisons of forced and free labour, argues for the complete abolition of slavery. Stephen had been the legal mastermind of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which abolished the slave trade in the British Empire but not slavery itself. This important work was influential in directing public opinion against slavery and helped lead towards the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act. It is a key text of the nineteenth-century abolitionist movement and is vital for understanding the arguments and debates that led to abolition.

Civil and Criminal Justice in the West Indies
  • Fortunatus Dwarris
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    09 December 2010
    First published in:
    1827
  • Sir Fortunatus Dwarris (1786–1860) was an English barrister, civil servant and abolitionist. After graduating from University College, Oxford, in 1808 he was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1811. In 1823 Dwarris was appointed a commissioner for an Imperial Commission of Inquiry on the state of legal and slave codes of the self-governing colonies of the British West Indies. This detailed volume, first published in 1827, contains three reports summarising the Commission's findings and recommendations. Focusing on the islands of Barbados, Tobago, Dominica, and Antigua, this volume provides a detailed analysis of the various criminal and civil laws peculiar to each island, together with a description of the various courts and processes in each. The commissioners perceptively discuss and illustrate the institutionalised racism of these laws, providing valuable information for the study of slavery and emancipation and the legal history of the British West Indies.

Six Months in the West Indies, in 1825
  • Henry Nelson Coleridge
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    17 February 2011
    First published in:
    1826
  • Henry Nelson Coleridge (1798–1843) was plagued with spinal problems and rheumatism throughout his life. The purpose of his six-month voyage around the Caribbean, although ostensibly for his health, was also a futile attempt to prevent his marriage to his beloved cousin Sara. Coleridge's thinly disguised references to Sara punctuate this light-hearted memoir, originally published anonymously in 1826. Coleridge compares and contrasts twelve different islands. Towns, villages, monuments, architecture, churches and plantations are described as he roams the islands freely, visits acquaintances and enjoys the natural history. Throughout his journey Coleridge observes all races on the islands. He gives an account of the Caribbean plantations, commenting on the situation of the plantation slaves and pondering the opportunities available to emancipate them without affecting the plantations' productivity. He also highlights cases where slaves are well treated by plantation owners.

Pamphlets on West Indian Slavery
  • Elizabeth Heyrick, Alexander McDonnell
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    23 September 2010
    First published in:
    1824
  • This book contains two pamphlets showing two opposed points of view on the slavery question. British philanthropist Elizabeth Heyrick (1769–1831) was a strong supporter of complete emancipation for slaves in the British West Indies, and published Immediate, Not Gradual Abolition in 1824. This work not only criticises anti-slavery campaigners of the time, whose efforts Heyrick considered too cautious and indirect; they also call for a boycott of all slave-produced goods from the West Indies - particularly sugar - and underline the collective responsibility of British citizens in the matter. Alexander McDonnell (1794–1875) was an equally vigorous propagandist for the sugar-planters of the West Indies, and published Compulsory Manumission: or, An Examination of the Actual State of the West India Question, in 1827. These works show the strength of feeling on both sides of the argument in Britain nearly twenty years after the abolition of the slave trade.

West India Colonies
  • James MacQueen
  • Published online:
    05 July 2011
    Print publication:
    23 September 2010
    First published in:
    1824
  • James MacQueen (1778–1870) was one of the most outspoken critics of the British anti-slavery campaign in the 1820s and 1830s. A former manager of a sugar plantation in the Caribbean, he was editor of the Glasgow Courier, a paper that favoured West Indian merchant interests and opposed rights for slaves. First published in 1824, this book is a direct attack on contemporary anti-slavery campaigners, such as William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, whom MacQueen holds responsible for 'the dreadful misrepresentations scattered abroad' about West India colonies and the planters. MacQueen, who insists on calling himself an enemy of slavery 'in the abstract', argues that abolition in the colonies would lead to insurrections, bringing chaos and barbarism to these territories. This, in turn, would lead to the loss of the British colonies. This volume remains an essential document in the context of post-colonial studies.

The Slavery of the British West India Colonies Delineated
  • As it Exists Both in Law and Practice, and Compared with the Slavery of Other Countries, Antient and Modern
  • Volume 1, Being a Delineation of the State in Point of Law
  • James Stephen
  • Published online:
    07 October 2011
    Print publication:
    30 September 2010
    First published in:
    1824
  • The lawyer and leading abolitionist James Stephen (1758–1832) published Volume 1 of The Slavery of the British West India Colonies Delineated in 1824. The volume is an exposure of the cruel and oppressive legal system of slavery in the British West Indies. The work explores the origin of nineteenth-century colonial slave laws, the legal status of individual slaves, the legal relations between slaves and their masters, and the policing and governance of slave populations. In each chapter Stephen exposes the cruelty and inhumanity behind the West Indian slave laws. Stephen had been the legal mastermind of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which abolished the slave trade in the British Empire but not slavery itself. This important work was influential in directing public opinion against slavery and helped lead towards the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act. It is a key text in the progression of the nineteenth-century abolitionist movement.

The Jamaica Planter’s Guide
  • Or, a System for Planting and Managing a Sugar Estate or Other Plantations in that Island, and Throughout the British West Indies in General
  • Thomas Roughley
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    16 December 2010
    First published in:
    1823
  • Thomas Roughley published this Guide in 1823, based on his own experience. The book is an important source on Britain's richest colony, where the sugar trade had reached its peak production around 1810. At a time when the abolition of slavery was a major issue, Jamaican planters were particularly concerned, as so much of their activity was based on slave labour. The book deals with all aspects of running a sugar plantation profitably, the chapter on the work force being particularly interesting. He outlines each role necessary for the effective estate, and criticises the 'slanders' of philanthropists regarding the mistreatment of slaves, referring to the strict laws for their protection: since the importation of new slaves had been banned since 1807, it was all the more necessary for owners to look after their workforce's health and welfare. Roughley shows that well-run plantations were highly complex agricultural and economic units.

Letters from the Havana, During the Year 1820
  • Containing an Account of the Present State of the Island of Cuba, and Observations on the Slave Trade
  • Robert Francis Jameson
  • Published online:
    05 August 2011
    Print publication:
    23 December 2010
    First published in:
    1821
  • Robert Francis Jameson was the British Commissioner of Arbitration stationed in Cuba between 1819 and 1823. This volume, first published in 1821, contains his observations of Cuba, recorded during his year-long stay in Havana in 1820. Jameson provides a comprehensive description of Cuban society and a detailed account of the city of Havana, illustrating the stark differences between the classes in Havana society. At this time, Cuba was the world's leading producer of sugar cane, and totally dependent on slave labour and the slave trade. Jameson discusses the impact of slavery on the Cuban economy and the advantages and disadvantages of emancipation. He also discusses Cuba's constitutional history and contemporary economy, exploring the effects of Ferdinand VII's opening of Havana to foreign trade. Written in the form of letters to an anonymous recipient, this volume provides a valuable and fascinating picture of contemporary Cuban society.

Memoirs of Granville Sharp, Esq.
  • Composed from his Own Manuscripts, and Other Authentic Documents in the Possession of his Family and of the African Institution
  • Granville Sharp
  • Edited by Prince Hoare
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    11 December 2014
    First published in:
    1820
  • Self-educated in languages and the law, the author Granville Sharp (1735–1813) was a leading anti-slavery campaigner. Though many of his associates in the abolitionist movement were dissenters or freethinkers, he was an Anglican very much concerned with the fate of the church in America after the war of independence. His family consigned his archives to the painter, playwright and author Prince Hoare (1755–1834), who published this biography in 1820. Sharp is less well remembered than other British abolitionists such as Clarkson and Wilberforce, but it was his work which, in 1772, brought the landmark case of James Somerset before Lord Mansfield, who upheld Sharp's legal arguments: as a result, it was henceforth understood that any slave reaching the shores of England became free. Sharp's continuing work for abolition, and his many other charitable and scholarly activities, are detailed in this fascinating work, drawn directly from his own writings.

The History, Civil and Commercial, of the West Indies
  • With a Continuation to the Present Time
  • Volume 2
  • Bryan Edwards
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    09 December 2010
    First published in:
    1819
  • Bryan Edwards (1743–1800) was a wealthy West Indian planter, politician and historian. He vigorously opposed the abolition of the slave trade, since the sugar industry relied heavily on it. His most important work was The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies, originally published in two volumes in 1793, and subsequently expanded (this fifth edition of 1819 reaching five volumes) with many plates and maps. In this wide-ranging work, he described his aim as 'to describe the manners and dispositions of the present inhabitants, as influenced by climate, situation, and other local causes . . . an account of the African slave trade, some observations on the negro character and genius, and reflections on the system of slavery established in our colonies'. Volume 2 includes a description of the present inhabitants of the islands, the practice of slavery, government and commercial activity.

The History, Civil and Commercial, of the West Indies
  • With a Continuation to the Present Time
  • Volume 1
  • Bryan Edwards
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    09 December 2010
    First published in:
    1819
  • Bryan Edwards (1743–1800) was a wealthy West Indian planter, politician and historian. He vigorously opposed the abolition of the slave trade, since the sugar industry relied heavily on it. His most important work was The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies, originally published in two volumes in 1793, and subsequently expanded (this fifth edition of 1819 reaching five volumes) with many plates and maps. In this wide-ranging work, he described his aim as 'to describe the manners and dispositions of the present inhabitants, as influenced by climate, situation, and other local causes . . . an account of the African slave trade, some observations on the negro character and genius, and reflections on the system of slavery established in our colonies'. Volume 1 covers the physical geography of the area, its early inhabitants, and the discovery and settlement by Europeans.

The History, Civil and Commercial, of the West Indies
  • With a Continuation to the Present Time
  • Volume 5
  • Bryan Edwards
  • Published online:
    05 February 2012
    Print publication:
    09 December 2010
    First published in:
    1819
  • Bryan Edwards (1743–1800) was a wealthy West Indian planter, politician and historian. He vigorously opposed the abolition of the slave trade, since the sugar industry relied heavily on it. His most important work was The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies, originally published in two volumes in 1793, and subsequently expanded (this fifth edition of 1819 reaching five volumes) with many plates and maps. In this wide-ranging work, he described his aim as 'to describe the manners and dispositions of the present inhabitants, as influenced by climate, situation, and other local causes … an account of the African slave trade, some observations on the negro character and genius, and reflections on the system of slavery established in our colonies'. Volume 5 includes legislative papers dealing with the West Indies, and a supplement to the history of St Domingo.

The History, Civil and Commercial, of the West Indies
  • With a Continuation to the Present Time
  • Volume 3
  • Bryan Edwards
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    17 February 2011
    First published in:
    1819
  • Bryan Edwards (1743–1800) was a wealthy West Indian planter, politician and historian. He vigorously opposed the abolition of the slave trade, since the sugar industry relied heavily on it. His most important work was The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies, originally published in two volumes in 1793, and subsequently expanded (this fifth edition of 1819 reaching five volumes) with many plates and maps. In this wide-ranging work, he described his aim as 'to describe the manners and dispositions of the present inhabitants, as influenced by climate, situation, and other local causes … an account of the African slave trade, some observations on the negro character and genius, and reflections on the system of slavery established in our colonies'. Volume 3 examines the French colony of St Domingo and the rebellion there, and also discusses Jamaica, Barbados and St Lucia.

The History, Civil and Commercial, of the West Indies
  • With a Continuation to the Present Time
  • Volume 4
  • Bryan Edwards
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    09 December 2010
    First published in:
    1819
  • Bryan Edwards (1743–1800) was a wealthy West Indian planter, politician and historian. He vigorously opposed the abolition of the slave trade, since the sugar industry relied heavily on it. His most important work was The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies, originally published in two volumes in 1793, and subsequently expanded (this fifth edition of 1819 reaching five volumes) with many plates and maps. In this wide-ranging work, he described his aim as 'to describe the manners and dispositions of the present inhabitants, as influenced by climate, situation, and other local causes … an account of the African slave trade, some observations on the negro character and genius, and reflections on the system of slavery established in our colonies'. Volume 4 describes the campaigns of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars in the West Indies, and provides updated sections on the issue of abolition.

Thoughts on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and Civilization of Africa
  • With Remarks on the African Institution
  • Joseph Marryat
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    20 January 2011
    First published in:
    1816
  • Joseph Marryat (1757–1824) was an M.P., chairman of Lloyd's and colonial agent for Grenada. This volume contains three of his pamphlets - Thoughts on the Abolition of the Slave Trade (1816), More Thoughts (1816) and More Thoughts Still (1818) which replied to his critics. The first pamphlet was very controversial, running to four editions in the year of publication. It vigorously attacks the policies and influence of the African Institution, whose arguments regarding the operation of slavery since the Abolition Act of 1807 he proves, by using evidence from official British and colonial government reports, to contain many falsehoods. Marryat believed that, with regard to emancipation, lessons must be learned from the French Revolution: ideals, if taken too quickly to extremes, cause national and even international conflict. His critics accused him of equal economy with the truth by selective use of source material: his responses were also best-sellers.

The History of the Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade by the British Parliament
  • Volume 1
  • Thomas Clarkson
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    16 September 2010
    First published in:
    1808
  • Thomas Clarkson (1760–1846) was a leading campaigner against slavery and the African slave trade. After graduating from St. John's College, Cambridge in 1783, Clarkson with Granville Sharp (1735–1813) founded the Committee for the Abolition of the African Slave Trade in 1787, which increased popular support for abolition and was the main campaigner behind the abolition of the slave trade. These volumes, first published in 1808, contain a unique contemporary account of the abolition movement from one of its major leaders. Clarkson describes in great detail the Quaker background to the abolitionist movement and the parliamentary debates leading to the Slave Trade Act of 1807. The contemporary arguments both in support and in opposition to abolition and the researches and actions of the abolition movement's members are described, creating an important historical record of the movement. Volume 1 contains the early history of the abolition movement until July 1788.

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