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Six months in the West Indies, in 1825

Wilberforce House, Hull. Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature, University of London. British Library. Kongelige Bibliotek, Danmark.

West Indies Travel Coleridge Slavery Colonies British Caribbean Slaves

Coleridge (nephew of the poet) went to the West Indies for his health in 1825, visiting British and French colonies in the Caribbean, including Trinidad, Martinique, Barbados, Grenada and St Lucia. The final chapter of his book is entitled 'Planters and Slaves', and claims to represent the viewpoint of the general public: "neither Methodists nor Abolitionists, who get up no reports and make no speeches" (309). Coleridge does not explicitly support the abolition of colonial slavery, instead he argues for education, legal reform, manumission, and gradual amelioration of slavery, which he admits is "a very bad system" (316).

Cited in the third annual report of the Birmingham Female Society for the Relief of British Negro Slaves (1828).