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The Horrors of Slavery; exemplified in the Life and History of Rev. Robert Wedderburn [...] With Remarks on, and Illustrations of the Treatment of the Blacks, and a view of their Degraded State, and the Disgusting Licentiousness of the Planters

British Library

Jamaica Plantation Society Family Horrors Slavery

Dedicated to William Wilberforce, this pamphlet was written by the black radical London preacher Robert Wedderburn, whose mother was a household slave on a sugar plantation in Jamaica and whose father was a Scottish planter. He tells his family history of illegitimacy in order to expose Jamaican plantation society and the treatment of slaves, and declares himself ready to testify against slavery to Parliament and to "see justice overtake the oppressors of my countrymen" (9). He also refers to the "the prospect of a general rebellion and massacre" (24) in the West Indies as the subject of a future publication.

The pamphlet also contains an exchange of letters between Wedderburn and his brother, Andrew Colvile, published in the Sunday paper Bell's Life in London in 1824.