Anti-Slavery International - History

History

The first Anti-Slavery Society was founded in 1823 and was committed to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire, which was substantially achieved in 1838 under the terms of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. In 1839, English activist Joseph Sturge formed a successor organisation, British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (today known as Anti-Slavery International), which worked to outlaw slavery in other countries.

In 1840, a large international conference was organised in London that attracted delegates from around the world (including from the United States of America, in the South of which slavery was at times referred to as "our peculiar institution") to the Freemasons' Hall, London on June 12, 1840. Many delegates were notable abolitionists, with Thomas Clarkson the key speaker, and the image of the meeting was captured in a remarkable painting that still hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London. Delegates included

George William Alexander (Treasurer)
William Allen
Saxe Bannister (Australian)
Rev. Thomas Binney
James G. Birney (delegate from the United States)
Samuel Bowly
Sir John Bowring
George Bradburn (American)
Rev. William Brock
Sir Thomas Buxton
Anne Isabella, Baroness Byron
Thomas Clarkson (key speaker)
Josiah Conder
Daniel O'Connell (Irish)
John Ellis
Josiah Forster
Robert Kaye Greville
William Forster
Elizabeth Fry
Samuel Gurney
John Howard Hinton
John Angell James
Rev. Joseph Ketley (Guyana)
William Knibb
Dr. Stephen Lushington, M.P.
Dr. Richard Robert Madden (Irish)
James Mott (American)
Lucretia Mott (American)
Amelia Opie
Wendell Phillips (American)
Samuel Jackman Prescod (Barbados)
John Scoble (Canada)
Joseph Sturge (founder)
George Thompson, and
Sir John Eardley-Wilmot, Bart., M.P.

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