ABSTRACT
The abolitionist obligations that led to a particular construction of British identity were constitutive of Britain’s assertion of sovereignty throughout its empire and beyond, and these obligations are what lent legitimacy and meaning to Britain’s overseas activities. Confronted by the colonial overthrow of British rule, there was the contradiction between the assertion of British rule in North America and Britain’s professed dedication to liberty. The abolitionist movement gained its momentum through the activism of a community of committed individuals, who successfully blended ideas about the obligations of the British Empire with their arguments about the slave trade. These abolitionists successfully reinvented British identity and demonstrated how support of the slave trade contradicted British values. The chapter examines written arguments published by abolitionists and their critics prior to Britain’s abolition of the slave trade in 1807. Twenty years lay between the founding of the first abolition society in 1787 and the passing of the Slave Trade Abolition Bill in February 1807.
