Slavery: supporters and abolitionists, 1675-1865

This collection provides access to 28,202 pages.  MAP states, "With a focus upon Jamaica and the West Indies, they also cover tensions in the anti-slavery movement as Christians challenged churches on their acceptance of proceeds from slavery; while transatlantic tensions were exacerbated when British protestors criticised slavery in the fledgling United States. These papers' coverage is mainly focussed upon the eighteenth and nineteenth century, a time period over which abolitionist views would grow in prominence and Government views on the practice would change markedly; from The papers of Samuel Martin, 1694-1776, relating to Antigua to the Ord report on the West Coast of Africa, 1865. The British Government's developing interest in the impact of the slave trade can be seen in both the Report of the Commissioners on African Settlements: report on the slave trade, 1811 and the Report of the Select Committee on the West Coast of Africa, 1842. As the Government's concern about the ethics of slavery grew, the business community had much to gain from resisting any move that could damage their profits. Some of the content included here features records from these businesses of a more general nature such as Lascelles and Maxwell letterbooks, 1739-1769 and Material relating to the West Indies from the Senhouse papers, 1762-1831. Other slavery business records record more statistical data in the form of ledgers, as with the Log and journal of the Bristol ship, Black Prince, 1762-1764 and the Jamaica plantation records from the Dickinson papers, 1675-1849 as well as the Records of the Jamaican Prospect Estate: plantation ledgers, 1785-1817. As opposition to slavery grew, the abolitionists formed societies through which they could campaign for the end of slavery. Different societies took different approaches to challenging slavery. The Anti-Slavery Society papers: Trinidad, 1836-1842 cover attempts to educate the children of slaves. Whilst other societies forged links with American abolitionist societies, despite the transatlantic tensions that made such relationships challenging. Examples of such links can be found in The Rhodes House papers: material relating to America from anti-slavery collection in Rhodes House, Oxford, 1839-1868 as well as in The Estlin Papers, 1840-1844. A number of memoirs and research papers in relation to Jamaica and slavery, though from a British perspective, can be found amongst the Materials on the history of Jamaica in the Edward Long papers, 1734-1813. Through a combination of statistics, correspondence, pamphlets and memoirs, these papers offer contemporaneous insights into the worldviews of slavery's critics and advocates."