Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the impact of antislavery crusaders who provided an initial template for abolitionist rhetoric against the standard defenses of slavery. The colonial Quaker activist, Anthony Benezet, inspired the London activist Granville Sharp to refine his arguments and set particular goals. The book discusses how other activists brought more diverse perspectives and expanded the form of abolitionist writing after Benezet and Sharp. Diversity in writers prompted a diversity in forms of writing as the anti-slave trade appeals expanded into fiction and poetry. The book outlines the gradual changes in argument and tone of proslavery rhetoric as writers respond to an increasingly powerful opposition and an unsympathetic public. It examines the last stages of the debates from the first inquiry into the slave trade in 1788 to abolition in 1807. Abolition have implications not only for Great Britain, but the whole civilized world.