Edward Gibbon Wakefield (20 March 1796 – 16 May 1862) was a British politician, the driving force behind much of the early colonisation of South Australia, and later New Zealand.
Wakefield, who in 1816 married Eliza Pattle (1799–1820), was the eldest son of Edward Wakefield (1774–1854) and Susanna Crash (1767–1816). He is mentioned and criticised in Chapter 33 of Karl Marx's Das Kapital (Volume 1)
He was imprisoned for 3 years in 1827 for his role as a primary protagonist in the Shrigley abduction.
Read more about Edward Gibbon Wakefield: Early Life, South Australia, Canada, The New Zealand Company, Canada Again, Final Years in Britain, Wakefield in New Zealand, Further Reading
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“The shadow of a mighty Negro past flits through the tale of Ethiopia the shadowy and of the Egypt the Sphinx. Throughout history, the powers of single blacks flash here and there like falling stars, and die sometimes before the world has rightly gauged their brightness.”
—W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt)
“The author himself is the best judge of his own performance; none has so deeply meditated on the subject; none is so sincerely interested in the event.”
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