ABOLITION & EMANCIPATION

Part 1: The Papers of Thomas Clarkson, William Lloyd Garrison, Zachary Macaulay, Harriet Martineau, Harriet Beecher Stowe & William Wilberforce from the Huntington Library

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

Part 1 of this project brings together a strong group of papers from the Huntington Library of leading figures in the movement for the Abolition of Slavery. It covers material on the following six key individuals:

Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846), whose prize winning essay against slavery in 1786 was a prelude to 50 years service in the cause of abolition throughout the world. Together with William Wilberforce and Granville Sharp he founded the British Anti-Slavery Society in 1787 and he saw the passing of British Anti-Slavery laws in 1807 and the abolition of slavery in British Colonies in 1833.

This material includes original manuscript essays by Clarkson entitled: Account of efforts,1807-24, to abolish slavery ; African Prince ; and Paper ... to interfere for better treatment of Negroes in the West Indies. There are also 86 letters and 3 other documents. There is a very good letter on the formation of a New Settlement at Sierra Leone, dated 13 October 1788 and a Report by Clarkson on "Sierra Leone, and its future Prospects ..." (36pp.). Correspondence with the Comte de Mirabeau (some very detailed letters), Lord Castlereagh, the Emperor of Russia, J G Whittier, John Cartwright, James Ramsay and John Jay, and "A Letter to the clergy and Slave holders in the northern parts of the United States of America" (34pp.) as well as Clarkson's 13 page manuscript "To the Planters, Slave holders of the Southern Parts of the United States of America", which also includes a letter from John Wesley to William Wilberforce, provide excellent research material.

Zachary Macaulay (1768-1838), Scottish philanthropist who devoted most of his life to the anti-slavery movement. At the age of sixteen he was sent to Jamaica, where he eventually became a plantation manager, but his unhappiness with the treatment of slaves brought about his return to England in 1792. He then obtained an appointment to the council of the new African colony of Sierra Leone, founded by William Wilberforce and other abolitionists as a settlement for liberated slaves, and became governor after his arrival there in 1793. His accomplishments in the colony were many, but difficulties finally forced him to resign his post in 1799, and from 1799 to 1808 he was Secretary of the Sierra Leone Company in England.

From 1802 until 1816 Macaulay edited The Christian Observer, an anti-slavery publication and oracle of the "Clapham Sect" in London. Macaulay was a close friend of Hannah More (58 letters are featured here), Henry Brougham (32 letters), Thomas Clarkson (27 letters), and William Wilberforce (47 letters). The 1,014 letters and documents included in the Macaulay Collection at the Huntington Library reflect the full range of his life and activities and his many other political and literary connections.

Other correspondents include Granville Sharp, Henry Thornton, Louis Dumont and Thomas Fowell Buxton. Another highlight is Zachary Macaulay's Diary for 1793-94 and his Journals for 1793-1799 for the period when he was in Sierra Leone.

William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879). There are 12 letters which span the period 1843-1878. Correspondents include Susan B Anthony, Annie Fields, Elizabeth Pease and Thomas Clarkson.

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876), political economist, author and a leading campaigner for the abolition of slavery and the rectification of other social injustices. This collection includes her original manuscript essays entitled: Health in the Hospital ; The Young Repealer ; Lady Noel Byron, a Defence ; and Letter to a student of history ; together with 19 of her letters.

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), novelist and anti-slavery campaigner. Born in Connecticut, Harriet Beecher moved to Cincinatti in 1832, where her father was made President of the Lane Theological Seminary, which rapidly became a hub of the anti-slavery movement. She married Calvin E Stowe, a teacher at the Seminary, in 1836 and, after having 6 children in 12 years, and relocating to Maine in 1849, she wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin (1851-2), which sold c1,500,000 copies in Great Britain and the Colonies alone.

We have taken the opportunity to include the full range of Harriet Beecher Stowe's materials at the Huntington Library. We feature the following literary manuscripts: Sojourner Truth, the Libyan Sybil; Lady Byron vindicated (preface); Behold the tabernacle of God; God's purposes will ripen fast; A Reply to the Address of the Women of England; Little Pussy Willow; Queer Little People; House & Home Papers; The Chimney Corner; Knocking; and Agnes of Sorrento; as well as 162 letters.

One highlight is a letter giving her reason for writing Uncle Tom's Cabin "... I wrote what I did because as a woman, as a mother, I was oppressed & broken hearted, with the sorrows & injustice I saw, because as a Christian I felt the dishonour to Christianity, - because as a lover of my country, I trembled at the coming day of wrath ....It is no merit in the sorrowful that they weep, or to the oppressed & smothering that they gasp & struggle, nor to me, that I must speak for the oppressed -- who cannot speak for themselves ....."

William Wilberforce (1759-1833). There are 91 letters (some in sections above) and his Notes for Questions re: Slavery - "Questions to be asked before Parliament" of 1788. Many letters are to Matthew Montagu, a number to E H Locker and one or two to individuals such as Robert Southey and Sir William Scott.

Taken together, these six collections form an invaluable source for the study of the anti-slavery movement in Britain and America.