No Abolition of Slavery;
or,
The Universal Empire of Love

Notes

T——

For “Thurlow,” i.e., Edward Thurlow, 1st Baron Thurlow, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, a defender of the British slave trade.

thunder grac’d

Had he the command of thunder, there can be no doubt that he would long before now have cleared a troublesome quarter. [Boswell’s note.]

Theseus plac’d

Sedet eternumque sedebit / Infelix Theseus. — Virg. [Boswell’s note.] “But cursed Theseus sits, and will sit forever,” from Virgil’s Aeneid.

St. Stephen’s luckless Chapel

St. Stephen’s Chapel is in the Palace of Westminster, used by members of Parliament.

Noodles, who rave for abolition

If the abettors of the Slave trade Bill should think they are too harshly treated in this Poem, let them consider how they should feel if their estates were threatened by an agrarian law; (no unplausible measure) and let them make allowances for the irritation which themselves have occasioned. [Boswell’s note.]

improv’d condition

That the Africans are in a state of savage wretchedness, appears from the most authentic accounts. Such being the fact, an abolition of the slave trade would in truth be precluding them from the first step towards progressive civilization, and consequently of happiness, which it is proved by the most respectable evidence they enjoy in a great degree in our West-India islands, though under well-regulated restraint. The clamour which is raised against this change of their situation, reminds us of the following passage in one of the late Mr. Hall’s “Fables for Grown Gentlemen.”

“’Tis thus the Highlander complains,
’Tis thus the Union they abuse,
For binding their backsides in chains,
And shackling their feet in shoes;
For giving them both food and fuel,
And comfortable cloaths,
Instead of cruel oatmeal gruel,
Instead of rags and heritable blows.” [Boswell’s note.]

No Capability in thee

Boswell puns on the nickname of the most famous landscape architect of the era, Lancelot “Capability” Brown.

Sherry

Actor and educator Thomas Sheridan, who focused on teaching public speaking.

Dolben

Sir William Dolben, 3rd Baronet was a prominent abolitionist. In 1788 he introduced a parliamentary bill, now known as Dolben’s Act or the Slave Trade Act, governing the conditions on slave ships.

Senate

The question now agitated in the British Parliament concerning slavery, is illustrated with great information, able argument, and perspicuous expression, in a work entitled, “Doubts on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, by an Old Member of Parliament”; printed for Stockdale, in Picadilly, 1790. It is ascribed to John Ranby, Esq.

That the evils of the Slave Trade should, like the evils incident to other departments of civil subordination, be humanely remedied as much as may be, every good man is convinced; and accordingly we find that great advances have been gradually made in that respect, as may be seen in various publications, particularly the evidence taken before the Privy-Council. It must be admitted, that in the course of the present imprudent and dangerous attempt to bring about a total abolition, one essential advantage has been obtained, namely, a better mode of carrying the slaves from Africa to the West-Indies; but surely this might have been had in a less violent manner. [Boswell’s note.]

planters

Diogenes being discovered in the street in fond intercourse with one of those pretty misses whom Sir William Dolben dislikes, steadily said, “Φυτενω Ανδρας — I plant men.” [Boswell’s note.]

Weavers

Manchester Petition. [Boswell’s note.] The Manchester Abolition Committee, which included many weavers since Manchester was a manufacturing town, introduced a series of petitions in 1788 trying to convince Parliament to abolish the slave trade.

kirk

Some of the Scottish Presbyteries petitioned. [Boswell’s note.] A number of Scottish Presbyterian churches petitioned the government to end the slave trade in the late 1780s.

Human Nature

Risum teneatis amici. Horat. [Boswell’s note.] “Could you keep from laughing, my friends? From The Art of Poetry by the Roman poet Horace.” “The Dignity of Human Nature” is the title of one of the Scottish philosopher David Hume’s writings; Boswell makes fun of the thought that lower-class people could discuss such lofty topics.

Windham

William Windham, English politician and abolitionist.

balloon

The Montgolfier Brothers made their first successful hot-air balloon flights in 1783. Windham was just one of many people excited by the prospect of human flight.

Courtenay

John Courtenay, Anglo-Irish politician and abolitionist.

Ham’s sons are always black

The Bible says Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and that Noah cursed Ham’s son Canaan for seeing him naked. Later interpreters saw Ham as the ancestor of the world’s Black people, and the curse of Ham as the explanation for their black skin. The story has often been used to justify slavery.

Burke

Edmund Burke was an Anglo-Irish politician and writer. His “Sketch of a Negro Code” was a plan for the gradual emancipation of enslaved Black people.

rights of men

Burke’s most famous work, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), was a conservative rejection of revolutionary ferment. It prompted Thomas Paine to write a pamphlet in reply, The Rights of Man. The resulting pamphlet war also produced Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

invocation

When I forget Him, may God forget me! [Boswell’s note.]

Regal Pow’r

Mira cano, Sol occubuit, nox nulla sequuta. See Camden’s Remains. [Boswell’s note.] “The sun set, but no night followed.”

system

The state of slavery is acknowledged both in the Old Testament and the New. [Boswell’s note.]

Bentley

The great Dr. Bentley was Mr. Cumberland’s grandfather. [Boswell’s note.] Richard Cumberland was a successful playwright, and the grandson of Richard Bentley, the greatest classical scholar of the eighteenth century. For several years he served as secretary to the Board of Trade and Plantations. His most popular play was The West Indian, focusing on a kindly plantation owner visiting London.

Descant de legibus Naturæ

Mr. Cumberland is a descendant of Bishop Cumberland, who wrote De legibus Naturæ. [Boswell’s note.] Richard Cumberland was Bishop of Peterborough beginning in 1691. He was the author of a book of a kind of utilitarian philosophy, On Natural Law.

Carpmeal

Messieurs Carpmeal, Macmanus, Jealous, and Townshend, gentlemen of the Publick Office, in Bow-Street. [Boswell’s note.] Thomas Carpmeal (or Carpmael), Patrick Macmanus, Charles Jealous, and John Townsend were among the “Bow Street Runners,” law enforcement officers who were the first professional police force.

cheerful gang

Sir William Young has a series of pictures, in which the negroes in our plantations are justly and pleasingly exhibited in various scenes. [Boswell’s note.] Young held a series of governmental posts related to the West Indies, and owned slaves on his plantations.

Angola race

The Angola blacks are the most ferocious. The author does not boast, like Abyssinian Yakoob, &ldqou;of no ungracious figure”: nor does he, like another beau garçon, Mr. Gibbon, prefix his pleasing countenance to captivate the ladies. [Boswell’s note.] Boswell quotes James Bruce’s Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, and mentions Edward Gibbon, the historian most famous for The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.