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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 2 of 5

Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters and on the Eastern Coast of Africa
  • Narrative of Five Years' Experiences in the Suppression of the Slave Trade
  • George Lydiard Sullivan
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    20 January 2011
    First published in:
    1873
  • A chronicle of the difficulties and successes of trying to police the slave trading routes on the eastern Indian Ocean. Captain George Sullivan writes of his experiences and frustrations in trying to enforce British anti-slave-trade laws among the Arab and African kingdoms of the east coast of Africa and the islands of Zanzibar, Pemba and Madagascar in 1849. Battling with scorching heat, rough seas, tropical diseases, hostility from the native slavers, and language barriers, the naval ships continue the struggle for abolition. While rescuing a significant number of slaves from transport dhows, the captain chronicles their stories: their tribes, how they were sold into slavery, and the best location to rehabilitate them to avoid re-capture. A fascinating record, published in 1873, of the struggle to enforce the complex abolition laws far from central government, with dubious documents and deceptions encountered from local Arab and Portuguese slavers.

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.

The Crisis of the Sugar Colonies
  • Or, an Enquiry into the Objects and Probable Effects of the French Expedition to the West Indies
  • James Stephen
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    23 September 2010
    First published in:
    1802
  • Written as four public letters, this book condemns the intention by the French to reinstate older slavery practices on its colonies in the West Indies. James Stephen (1758–1832) was a lawyer who, after moving to St Kitts with his family to earn a living, became a supporter of the abolition movement. On his return to London in 1794, Stephen became involved with the anti-slavery group, the Clapham Sect, whose members included William Wilberforce, and with whom Stephen developed a lifelong friendship. Elected as a Member of Parliament in 1808, Stephen contributed to drafting legislation for slave registration on the island of Trinidad, which became a model for other slave colonies. Stephen believed that the reinstatement of older slavery practices on French colonies in the West Indies would lead to slave revolts, and have significant consequences for the neighbouring British colonies. This work was published in London in 1802.

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 Remedy
  • Being a Sequel to the African Slave Trade
  • Thomas Fowell Buxton
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    09 December 2010
    First published in:
    1840
  • Thomas Fowell Buxton, M.P. (1786–1845) was a philanthropist who had many connections with the Quaker movement through the family of his wife, who was the sister of Henry Gurney and Elizabeth Fry. He was a passionate opponent of slavery, and campaigned to end it at a time when most British people believed that enough had been done by the abolition of British slave trading in 1807. The Remedy, first published in 1840, called on the government to do more to assist African development, so that African chiefs' participation in the trade would be reduced. Many African rulers believed that slavery was their only economic resource, but Buxton argued that this was false, and that, with training in agriculture and commerce, the available workforce could improve the economy of Africa without slavery. He also advocated greater use of the navy to patrol the coasts of Africa to drive off slavers.

Report of the Lords of the Committee of Privy Council on the Commerce and Navigation between His Majesty’s Dominions, and the Territories Belonging to the United States of America
  • Board of Trade
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    20 January 2011
    First published in:
    1791
  • The Committee was commissioned to report on the state of trade between Britain and America after the United States Congress had passed legislation imposing duties and restrictions on imports in 1789. Merchants and ship owners in the major British ports and British consuls in America were sent questionnaires on the effects of such levies. The committee made its report in 1791, and began by summarising the situation since Britain had acknowledged American independence in 1783, and how independence had affected trade, including that involving slaves, between the two countries. The decline in British exports to the United States had been offset by exports to Canada and the West Indies. Overall, the balance of trade was in Britain's favour, but the continuing prosperity of the British West Indian colonies was seen as depending almost entirely on their slave-based economy, and abolition was therefore not believed to be an option.

Lady Nugent's Journal
  • Jamaica One Hundred Years Ago
  • Maria Nugent
  • Edited by Frank Cundall
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    09 December 2010
    First published in:
    1907
  • The husband of Maria, Lady Nugent (1771–1834) was Governor of Jamaica from 1801 to 1806. Her diaries were not written for publication, and therefore offer a valuable and frank record of people and situations she met with in Jamaica. They were published privately after her death, and are here reproduced from the 1907 edition. The Jamaica diary covers a period of uncertainty in the West Indies due to the Napoleonic Wars. While generally avoiding politics, she comments on colonial society and planter life. Her initial view of slaves altered as rumours of uprisings made her fear for her young children. She also expresses concern about the sexual exploitation of slaves by planters, as being bad for both parties. The latter part of the work covers in less detail her return to England, and the period she spent in India where her husband had been appointed commander-in-chief.

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.

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.

Testimonies Concerning Slavery
  • Moncure Daniel Conway
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    17 February 2011
    First published in:
    1855
  • Moncure Conway (1832–1907) was born on his family's plantation in Virginia, but became a committed abolitionist soon after he left college. He joined abolitionist rallies and moved from Methodism to the Unitarian ministry, eventually becoming a freethinker. Conway became increasingly isolated from his family as a result of his abolitionist activism, his marriage to an abolitionist, and the resettling of a group of his father's escaped slaves in Ohio during the civil war. This book was published in 1865, soon after he settled in Britain, where he lived for over 30 years, became a supporter of women's suffrage, and networked with intellectuals including Dickens, Carlyle, Lyell and Darwin. His description of the injustices of slavery, including the slave trading in the southern plantations that triggered the secession of southern states and the civil war, is set in the context of his personal experiences and his evolving ethical views.

A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade
  • Addressed to the Freeholders and Other Inhabitants of Yorkshire
  • William Wilberforce
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    27 January 2011
    First published in:
    1807
  • 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 William Pitt, he took up the cause of abolition at Westminster, 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: shortly beforehand, Wilberforce had published this Letter to his constituents, justifying his preoccupation with abolition against claims that he was neglecting their local interests at Westminster, and setting out all his arguments against the slave trade. It is followed by his 1814 letter to Talleyrand, calling for a Europe-wide ban of the trade.

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 British West India Colonies in Connection with Slavery, Emancipation, etc.
  • Elizabeth Campbell
  • Edited by Stephen Bourne
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    30 September 2010
    First published in:
    1853
  • Stephen Bourne (1791–1868) was a British civil servant who served as a magistrate in Jamaica between 1834 and 1841 and as Registrar of British Guiana between 1841 and 1848. His daughter Elizabeth Campbell left England with her father in 1834, and lived in the West Indies for thirteen years. This volume contains two essays and a published letter, the essays written by Elizabeth Campbell and the letter by Stephen Bourne, discussing the effects and limits of the Emancipation Act on the economy and society of the British West Indies. The two essays by Campbell discuss the limited social effects of the Emancipation Act, with the letter by Bourne suggesting ways to improve the economic prosperity of the West Indies. The ideology of later abolitionists, who endeavoured to improve social and economic conditions in plantations to demonstrate the possibility of prosperity without slavery, is fully explored in this volume.

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.

William Lloyd Garrison
  • The Abolitionist
  • Archibald Henry Grimké
  • Published online:
    05 February 2012
    Print publication:
    21 October 2010
    First published in:
    1891
  • Archibald Grimké (1849–1930) was an American lawyer, politician and black civil rights activist. He was the son of a white plantation owner and a slave, and was born a slave himself. Aided by his father's abolitionist sisters, he graduated from Lincoln University, and in 1874 attended Harvard Law School. He then practised as a barrister in Boston, campaigning for black civil rights and writing many essays and articles concerning black history. This volume, first published in 1891, contains Grimké's biography of the prominent American abolitionist and social reformer William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879). Grimké discusses Garrison's considerable influence in the campaign for immediate emancipation, providing details on his early life and his position as editor of the leading abolitionist newspaper The Liberator. This sympathetic biography provides valuable insights into Garrison's life and his standing among contemporary civil rights campaigners in the years after emancipation.

The Life of William Wilberforce
  • Volume 5
  • Edited by Robert Isaac Wilberforce, Samuel Wilberforce
  • William Wilberforce
  • Published online:
    05 November 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 5 covers the period from 1818 until Wilberforce's death.

The West Indies, Before and Since Slave Emancipation
  • Comprising the Windward and Leeward Islands’ Military Command
  • John Davy
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    30 September 2010
    First published in:
    1854
  • John Davy (1790–1868) was an English doctor and brother of the chemist Sir Humphrey Davy. After graduating from Edinburgh University, in 1814 Davy became Inspector General of Army Hospitals, and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1834. In his capacity as Inspector General, he spent 1845–1848 living in Barbados and visiting other Caribbean Islands. This volume, first published in 1854, describes the society and culture of Barbados and other islands, including Trinidad, Tobago and St Lucia. Based on Davy's notes and observations made while stationed on the island, the book describes in vivid detail the disparities in education, quality of life and behaviour between the freed slaves, indentured servants and plantation owners of Barbados and other islands. Davy's sympathetic account provides valuable first-hand descriptions of the social conditions and tensions which existed after the Emancipation Act of 1834.

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.

Esclavage aux Antilles Françaises Avant 1789
  • Lucien Pierre Peytraud
  • Published online:
    07 October 2011
    Print publication:
    17 February 2011
    First published in:
    1897
  • The underlying thesis of Lucien Peytraud's 1897 work is that the practice of slavery in the West Indies prior to 1789 was of great economic and material benefit to the islands. He is adamant that the revisionist reading of history, which had only just begun at the time when this book was published, omits to consider this aspect in its treatment of the slave trade. Peytraud gives a broad and detailed account of the French slave trade in the West Indies, during which slaves from the African continent were shipped to both North and South America. He discusses the religion, morality and living conditions of the slaves and admits that it was common for European men to sexually exploit black women. He also addresses the legislation governing slaves, former slaves and slave-holding in the French colonies including the French Caribbean, the so-called Code Noir.

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.

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