Gillray Caricatures: Colonies

At the time Gillray was producing his prints William Wilberforce was working for the abolition of the slave trade. Barbarities in the West Indias (D12417) was published just days after the incident shown was mentioned during the parliamentary debate on Wilberforce's motion. Anti-saccharrites, or - John Bull and his family leaving off the use of sugar (D12446) reflects a movement to boycott sugar as a protest against the slave trade, but Gillray suggests that the King and Queen adopt this measure out of miserliness rather than concern for slaves. The Bengal levee (D13079) includes a host of caricatured attendees at one of Governor-General Cornwallis’s weekly levees at Government House, Calcutta. It is inscribed 'from an Original Drawing made on the spot, by an Amateur'.

Gillray Caricatures