London Scots in the Movement for Abolition
London Scots in the Movement for Abolition
The contribution of key Scots in England to the abolition movement has been little recognised. James Ramsay from Aberdeenshire, chaplain and physician in St.Kitts was driven out by the planters because of his humane attitude to slaves. From a vicarage in Kent he provided evidence on the slave trade for William Wilberforce and inspired the young Thomas Clarkson to dedicate his life to the cause. In addition to his 1792 tour, William Dickson wrote detailed books on slavery from his time as Secretary to the Governor of Barbados. James Stephen was inspired as a student in Aberdeen by the anti-slavery lectures of James Beattie and went on to draft the legislation for the abolition of the trade in 1807. Zachary Macaulay, after experiencing a slave plantation in Jamaica in his youth, became Governor of the free settlement of Sierra Leone and edited the highly influential Anti-Slavery Reporter which provided both ammunition for Wilberforce's parliamentary campaign and news for the growing anti-slavery societies throughout Britain. Henry Brougham, the Edinburgh lawyer and MP who was to become Lord Chancellor of England, worked with Macaulay and Stephen in the anti-slavery cause.
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