Overview

A collection of primary primary texts relating to the British slave trade in the 17th and 18th century. The first volume contains two 18th-century texts covering the operation of the slave trade in Africa. John Matthew's A Voyage to the River Sierra Leone offers a descriptive account of that part of West Africa based on the author's work there in 1785, 1786 and 1787. It includes an account of production and trade in Sierra Leone just before it was resettled by the black poor shipped out of London, a well-known but ill-starred philanthropic scheme of the time. Volume two focuses on the work of the Royal African Company, the best-known trading monopoly associated with the British slave trade. founded in 1672 by royal charter, the Company flourished particularly in the late 17th century but continued to operate throughout most of the 18th. The texts selected present salient features of the Company's organization over a period of 70 years. Volumes three and four complete the set by focusing on the abolitionist struggle to dismantle the British slave trade. Over the 20-year period from 1787 to 1807, when parliament passed an act to abolish the British slave trade, a propaganda war raged between promoters and detractors of the Guinea traffic. Volume three presents selected texts from the trade's opponents. Volume four counterposes these views with a selection of texts from advocates of the slave trade and from those concerned with the economic effects of abolition on Britain.

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9781851967568

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'[This] new collection of primary source material on the slave trade is to be welcomed by students and scholars ... the introductory essays by each editor (and the general introduction by Kenneth Morgan) provide superb overviews on most key topics in the study of the British slave trade and its abolition.' Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History

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