Introduction

The Romantic Period in English literature coincided with the time when the British Atlantic slave trade was at its height. It witnessed the campaign for the abolition of the trade within the British colonies, which was finally successful in 1807, although the trade continued illegally afterward. The colonial legislatures proceeded on this point of legal principle which they enshrined in their codes and acts and, by the end of the seventeenth century, a consensus had emerged that regarded slaves as property. The anti-slavery movement was made up of several different perspectives; philosophical, theological, economic, legal and political. In 1787 the various opponents of the slave trade combined to form the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1788 with Sharp as Chairman. The Executive Committee of the Society attracted the interest of the young Thomas Clarkson who had just graduated from Cambridge.