Abolition - Communicating the Movement

The success of the anti-slavery movement was the result of the way it captured the imagination of a generation. A group of abolitionists in parliament were particularly useful allies. One of its leaders, the Whig MP Lord Henry Brougham sent a personal message to the 1840 World's Anti-Slavery Convention delegates calling them 'the friends of humanity and justice' and wishing them 'wisdom' and 'zeal'.

In the world of literature, William Wordsworth, Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Blake and William Cowper all wrote verse inspired by the plight of slaves. Artists also rallied to the cause. The Royal Academy exhibition of 1840, which coincided with the Convention, had a strong anti-slavery theme and generated huge press response. The most notable exhibit was J. M. W. Turner's famous painting Slavers throwing overboard the Dead and Dying.

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