Verne and Slavery - some serious findings.
John Lamb
How Liverpool and not William Wilberforce was largely responsible for the abolition of Slavery in 1833.
The Abolition of Slavery was in two distinct phases. The 1807 Abolition of the Slave Trade Act led by William Wilberforce abolished the trade in slaves but did not free a single slave. It was the Abolition of Slavery Act of 1833 that freed over 800,000 people in the Caribbean, and contrary to popular belief it was the people of Liverpool and not William Wilberforce who were largely responsible. Although many Liverpool merchants campaigned against the Abolition of the slave trade in 1807, by 1821 there had been a change in attitudes to slavery in the city, and so it was Liverpool, long the deepest in the guilt of the slave trade, that was the first to campaign and drive through the abolition of slavery itself. The campaign for true freedom opened with a series of letters from the Liverpool Quaker merchant James Cropper, who wrote to William Wilberforce in 1821. Cropper, examined, questioned and ultimately attacked British slavery from this date, he impelled abolitionism forward. Wilberforce and others rallied to Cropper’s side only after the newcomer had set the movement on an ideological and organisational course of his own choosing and that was the immediate rather than gradual abolition of slavery. Cropper founded Britain’s first antislavery society in Liverpool in 1821 and nationally recruited the old guard of Wilberforce, Clarkson and Macaulay together with a new generation of abolitionists, he converted Joseph Sturge and Daniel O’Connell to abolitionism and launched the ‘second crusade’ this time for the abolition of slavery itself. However, by the mid 1820’s Wilberforce, Elderly and frail, largely backed out of active campaigning. Without disparaging the labours of William Wilberforce and others, the impulse for the abolition of slavery in the British Empire was thus given by James Cropper and his associated Liverpool Dingle Group of family and friends.
John Lamb July 2026
Source Quotes
In 1823, a new generation of abolitionists, along with a smattering of the old guard, launched a second crusade… Wilberforce was not amongst them. Elderly and frail, he had largely backed out of active campaigning…The gradualist caution of the 1820’s was superseded by a new mood led by the Agency Committee, made up of younger radical abolitionists: Joseph Sturge, James Stephen and James Cropper. With Wilberforce still committed to gradualism there was effectively a split within abolitionism. David Olusoga. Black and British – A Forgotten History p228 (2016)
It was James Cropper, a Quaker businessman of Liverpool, who examined, questioned and ultimately attacked British slavery from 1821, who impelled abolitionism forward. The old abolitionists rallied to Cropper’s side only after the newcomer had set the movement on an ideological and organisational course of his own choosing. Mark Jones. The mobilisation of public opinion against the slave trade and slavery (1998). 286110.pdf p126.
The campaign for emancipation opened with a series of letters which the Quaker merchant James Cropper wrote to Wilberforce in 1821 and which he published in the Liverpool Mercury. Michael R. Watts. The Dissenters p443 (1978).
It became Liverpool, long the deepest in the guilt of the slave trade, to come forward the first, to protest against. The British and Foreign Antislavery Reporter March 11th 1840. Memoirs of the clan "Aulay" with recent notes of interest - Google Books p168
“Liverpool was at first to the antislavery cause… It is with deep feeling that I have found myself on ground that has been consecrated and made holy by the prayers and efforts of those who first commenced the struggle for that sacred cause. Harriet Beecher Stowe referring to James Cropper and Dingle Vale, Liverpool. Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands p13 (1854). Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands - Google Books
That the Roscoe Circle had an enduring impact on local anti-slavery is evidenced by the creation in Liverpool of England’s first anti-slavery society in 1821. In 1823, the society’s founder, the Liverpool Quaker merchant James Cropper, a Roscoe Circle member and leading British abolitionist, invited Roscoe to take on the society’s presidency. Florence Baggett The Slaving Capital in the Era of Abolition: Liverpool’s Silent Rejection of the Slave Trade, 1787-1807. p78-79 rejection_of_the_slave_trade.pdf
His interest in it was continually nourished by the discussions which took place, almost annually at the Friends’ Yearly Meeting and especially by the close personal intercourse which soon grew up between him and Mr. James Cropper of Liverpool…from this time forward Joseph Sturge was irrevocably committed to the cause of the slave. Henry Richard. Memoir of Joseph Sturge p81-82 (1865) Memoirs of Joseph Sturge
O’Connell’s interest in the issue of slavery had been dated back to 1824 when James Cropper, a Liverpool Quaker merchant, visited Ireland to raise support for a proposal to undermine West Indian slavery. Patrick M. Geoghegan. Liberator The Life and Death of Daniel O’Connell 1830-47. Chapter 2 (2012) Liberator Daniel O'Connell - Google Books
It was only when abolition became organised and formalised in Liverpool in the 1820s that the city was able to achieve any significant national prominence in the anti-slavery movement. By then abolitionists in Liverpool were to a great extent at the forefront of the national campaign, with Cropper perhaps the most active of them, and his family carrying out much of the leg work in the propaganda battle. An Analysis of Slave Abolitionists in the North-West of England. Brian R. Howman p67 Microsoft Word - WRAP_thesis_coversheet2
But the crowning feature of the evening was James Cropper’s announcement: ‘It is with very great pleasure that I can add the name of William Wilberforce as having changed his opinion. He now deeply regrets that he was ever led to say anything in approbation of the Colonization Society.’ William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children .. : Garrison, Wendell Phillips, 1840-1907 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive p356.
Without disparaging the labours of Clarkson, Wilberforce, Macaulay and Stephen…the impulse to the last great movement for the abolition of slavery in the British Colonies was given by Mr Cropper. The British and Foreign Antislavery Reporter March 11th 1840. Memoirs of the clan "Aulay" with recent notes of interest - Google Books p168
Liverpool's Major Role in the Abolition of Slavery.
1821. Liverpool’s James Cropper opens the campaign for total emancipation in a series of letters written to William Wilberforce. Wilberforce supports ‘Great Cropper’s Proposal’.
1822. Cropper recruits veteran abolitionist and 1807 ‘Clapham Sect’ member Zachary Macaulay to his cause, Macaulay’s daughter Margaret marries James Cropper’s son Edward.
1823. James Cropper recruits 1807 Clapham Sect member Thomas Clarkson and gives him £500 (£70,000 in 2024 values) to tour Britain and campaign for the total abolition of slavery.
1823. Plantation owner John Gladstone personally blames Cropper’s anti-slavery leaflets for inciting the 1823 Demerara Slave Revolt – “the late revolt in Demerara (originating here)”.
1824. James Cropper’s daughter Eliza organises a national boycott of slave grown sugar in favour of free labour sugar from Southern Asia. Samples are distributed to all M.P.’s.
1824. James Cropper recruits fellow Quaker, Joseph Sturge, who he moulds into one of the most radical abolitionists of the 19th century. Sturge would marry Cropper’s daughter Eliza.
1824. James Cropper travels to Ireland and personally recruits to the abolitionist cause, Irish Member of Parliament Daniel O’Connell, the finest antislavery orator of the 19th century.
1824. John Gladstone states that “Considerable alarm has been felt in the southern states since Mr Cropper's publications have been circulated amongst the slaves there”.
1828. James Cropper donates money to a Philadelphia school for black infants and supports the first Black Antislavery newspaper - John Brown Russwurm’s Freedom’s Journal.
1832. Cropper invites black activist James McCune Smith to Dingle Bank, Smith is so moved by Cropper’s passion, he writes “The sight of a pale face” no longer “makes me sick”.
1832. Cropper introduces McCune Smith to black activist Nathaniel Paul and Liverpool abolitionist George Thompson. McCune Smith eventually mentors Frederick Douglass.
1832. James Cropper opposes paying compensation to slave owners, including Liverpool’s John Gladstone, Cropper writes “What would be the response if British factory owners sought compensation from public funds when they replaced obsolete machinery?”
1832. The New York Antislavery Society is formed and their opening statement hails Liverpool’s James Cropper and Irish recruit, Daniel O’Connell “as friends of black rights”.
1833. James Cropper introduces America’s leading abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison to all the leading British abolitionists as the 1833 Abolition of Slavery Act is read in Parliament.
1833. Garrison praises Cropper for persuading William Wilberforce to withdraw support for The American Colonisation Society and the voluntary repatriation of free blacks to Africa.
1836. James Cropper dispatches son-in-law Joseph Sturge to the Caribbean. Sturge’s report to Parliament results in the slave apprenticeship scheme being scrapped two years early.
1840. James Cropper helps Joseph Sturge organise the World’s first International Anti-Slavery Conference in London in June 1840, Cropper dies a few months before it opens.
1840. James Cropper’s extended Dingle family and Friends carry on the antislavery cause and focus on the millions whose fathers we enslaved, unenfranchised in America.
1848. Edward Cropper marries Margaret Denman, daughter of abolitionist peer and Lord Chief Justice, Lord Denman, a national figure / supporter of black emancipation since 1826.
1848. Margaret Cropper’s brother, Admiral Joseph Denman, wins his legal case after his West Africa Squadron is sued for destroying several slave forts on the West African Coast.
1849. The Cropper family and ‘The Dingle Group’ are alluded to by the author Elizabeth Gaskell in her novel Mary Barton.
1852. Lord Denman frequently visits Dingle Bank and writes an abolitionist pamphlet in 1853 promoting Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 antislavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
1853. Harriet Beecher Stowe visits Dingle Bank and thanks Liverpool for initiating the 1833 abolition of slavery. She states “Liverpool was at first to the antislavery cause… It is with deep feeling that I have found myself on ground that has been consecrated and made holy by the prayers and efforts of those who first commenced the struggle for that sacred cause.” She receives a rapturous welcome and a petition of support signed by 21,953 Liverpool women.
1859. Margaret Cropper gives financial support to the publication of Frederick Douglass’s antislavery papers, Douglass thanks her as President of the Liverpool Antislavery Society.
1861. The ‘Middle Passage’ and Atlantic Slave Trade largely come to an end on the west African Coast, largely due to efforts of Dingle Group Member Admiral Joseph Denman who is portrayed in the Steven Spielberg 1997 film Amistad as the fictional Captain Fitzgerald.
John Lamb