ABSTRACT

Edmund Burke (1729–97) was one of the most significant politicians of his day. His Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) established himself as one of the leading theorists of British conservatism. Burke was connected with the party of Whig politicians that clustered around Lord Rockingham to whom he was private secretary. He was associated with Rockingham’s attempts to diminish the power and influence of the crown and he also criticised the policy of Lord North’s government regarding the American colonies. Burke became mp for the slaving port of Bristol in 1774 in which capacity he served until 1780 when he was succeeded by John Baker Holroyd, who campaigned more effectively for the city’s commercial interests (see p. 349). More than most politicians of the day, Burke was aware of the importance of colonial and imperial affairs, beginning in 1788 with the celebrated impeachment of Warren Hastings the Governor of Bengal. Arguably Burke’s speeches and the impeachment they launched were one of the first articulations of the colonial guilt that lay at the centre of British political life. On 12th May 1789, Burke spoke in support of Wilberforce’s motion for the total abolition of the slave trade (see pp. 135–52) claiming that the trade was ‘so horrid in all its circumstances, that it was impossible a single argument could be heard in its favour’. He also supported Wilberforce’s similar motion of 1791 for abolition. However, when it became plain to him that the gradualists were in the ascendant, he sent to their chief apologist, the Secretary of the Navy Henry Dundas, his Sketch of the Negro Code which he claimed to have drafted twelve years earlier. Burke argues that the increased regulation of the trade and institution of slavery would lead to its eventual abolition. His Code also maintains the importance of christianising and ‘civilizing’ the slaves. The text of the code is taken from The Works of the Right Honorable Burke, Volume IX (London, 1826).