Letter from Thomas Foxwell Buxton, London, [England], to William Lloyd Garrison, 1834 Sept[embe]r 30

Thomas Fowell Buxton writes to William Lloyd Garrison thaking him for the letter introducing him to Robert Purvis and saying that while he only was able "to see him for a few moments," Purvis offered to bring this letter from him to Garrison on his return to the United States. Buxton then answers the charge that William Wilberforce signed a protest against the American Colonization Society in the last days of his life, "unconscious of what he did," by asserting that Wilberforce was "in good health at the time, in full prossession of his faculties & neither he nor his friends expected that his invaluable life was so near its close." He grants Garrison permission "to make any use you please of this contradiction" and says that he is expecting news from Jamaica about "the way in which the first of August passed" [the date ending slavery in British colonies]. Buxton comments that he has "no confidence at all in the apprenticeship system" and he believes it will soon be replaced "by the simpler, the wiser, the more natural plan of labour for wages." He also expresses the "deep feelings of interest" he and other British abolitionists have for "the subject of Slavery in America" and shares his plan to write a letter containing his "observations .. for the purpose of circulation in America."

Courtesy of Boston Public Library

anti slavery collection boston public library rare books department abolitionists england 19th century correspondence united states antislavery movements history social reformers slaves emancipation west indies british american colonization society wilberforce william 1759 1833 letters correspondence manuscripts english sir thomas fowell buxton 1786 1845 thomas foxwell buxton william lloyd garrison ultra high resolution high resolution slavery

1834

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