The Economic Argument for abolishing Slavery

Address on the utility of refraining from the use of West-India Sugar and Rum (reference: NC/Q/289/1)

The economic argument for abolishing slavery was heavily promoted during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The impact of slavery affected the lives of everyone, even something as simple as putting sugar into a cup of tea.

This document is an Address written by the abolitionist William Fox in about 1790. It highlights the link between the consumption of sugar and rum, and the slave trade. It says: 'our increasing happiness and prosperity has spread desolation and misery over a country as large as all Europe!'. The Address continues by explaining how the boycotting of sugar would improve the lives of the African enslaved.

It ends by stating: 'The number of Negro Slaves in the settlements of Great-Britain and France in the West-Indies, exceeds a Million; and so unfavourable is their treatment to population, that it requires an annual importation from Africa, of at least Fifty-Eight Thousand to keep up the stock! - What a lamentable destruction of human beings!!!'

Such documents were distributed widely in order to publicise the abolitionists' cause.

Find out more...

• Larger version of the cover: follow this link to see the cover of the address in more detail [PDF 548KB]
• Read more of the argument for abolishing slavery here [PDF 745KB]
• Read the final statement of the address here [PDF 344KB]
• The Quakers and Abolition: the address survives among the records of the Society of Friends. Find out more about their campaigning against slavery.
• Further information: explore other web sites and online resources

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