ABSTRACT
The Cheap Repository for Moral and Religious Tracts was an important element in the evangelical counter-offensive against irreligiosity in the 1790s. Written in a plain and condescending style and prefaced by crude woodcuts, these teachings imitated popular chap-books. The Black Prince was included in a later phase of the Repository. Repudiating her earlier publishers, Hazard and Marshall, More had handed over the rights to Evans, Hatchard, and Rivington. Published in 1799, this tract may have existed in an earlier form. A Sierra Leone Company Report of 1794 is the original source for about half of the text, with passages often copied verbatim. Unlike Falconbridge’s realist account, the tract-writer’s story is inflected with tropes from the noble Negro and noble savage traditions. The protagonist is intellectually weaker but morally improved. The tale culminates in a pietistic celebration of prince Naimbanna’s new-found Christianity, especially as he was felled early before he could bear evangelical fruit.
