Zachary Macaulay 1768-1838: The Steadfast Scot in the British Anti-Slavery Movement
ISBN: 9781846317057
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / Liverpool University Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Sociology;

In 1833 Thomas Fowell Buxton, the parliamentary successor to William Wilberforce, proposed a toast to 'the anti-slavery tutor of us all. - Mr. Macaulay.' Yet Zachary Macaulay's considerable contribution to the ending of slavery in the British Empire has received scant recognition by historians. This book seeks to fill that gap, focussing on his involvement with slavery and anti-slavery but also examining the people and events that influenced him in his life's work. It traces his Scottish roots and his torrid account of years as a young overseer on a Jamaican plantation. His accidental stumbling into the anti-slavery circle through a family marriage led to formative years in the government of the free colony of Sierra Leone dealing with settlers, slave traders, local chiefs and a French invasion. His return to Britain in 1799 began nearly forty years of research, writing, and reporting in the long campaign to get rid of what he described as 'this foul stain on the nation.' James Stephen rated him as


Rev. Dr. Iain Whyte is a minister of the Church of Scotland and an Honarary Post-Doctoral Fellow of the University of Edinburgh. He was formerly Chaplain to the Universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh.

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