(ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY). ~ An Act to amend and consolidate the Laws relating to the Abolition of the Slave Trade. 24 June 1824. [London: George Eyre and Andrew Strahan, 1824].
Small folio (298 × 190 mm), pp. [1121]-1199, [1]. Woodcut device to upper cover. Preserved in modern wrappers.
First edition. This important anti-slavery act, now approaching its bicentenary, was a direct result of the formation of the Anti-Slavery Society in 1823, and renewed political agitation by key abolitionist figures such as Wilberforce and Clarkson. The society was founded on 31 January 1823, when a group well known for their opposition to the slave trade met at the King’s Head tavern in the City of London. ‘Its purpose was to rouse public opinion to bring as much pressure as possible on parliament, and the new generation realized that for this they still needed Clarkson... He rode some 10,000 miles and achieved his masterpiece: by the summer of 1824, 777 petitions had been sent to parliament demanding gradual emancipation’. Also in this year, Wilberforce published his Appeal to the Religion, Justice and Humanity of the Inhabitants of the British Empire in behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies, in which he ‘dwelt on the moral and spiritual degradation of the slaves and presented their emancipation as a matter of national duty to God. It proved to be a powerful inspiration for the anti-slavery agitation in the country’ (Oxford DNB).
‘The Consolidated Slave Act repealed previous legislation on slavery and brought together all slave laws into one act. The act was designed to eliminate the more vicious provisions of the West Indian slave codes while simultaneously setting out new guidelines for the better treatment of slaves and free people of color. As recommended by the commission, the act included clauses that facilitated manumission’. Newton, ‘The King v. Robert James, a Slave, for Rape: Inequality, Gender, and British Slave Amelioration, 1823-1834’ in Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 47, no. 3, 2005, pp. 592-3. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3879392. Accessed 12 Mar. 2024.