We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
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.
Loading metrics...
* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.
Usage data cannot currently be displayed.