James Cropper (abolitionist)

In a letter to Macauley dated 12 July 1822, James Cropper wrote of his intention to form a society in Liverpool, which would promote the final abolition of slavery itself.

In June 1823, James Cropper wrote to Zachary Macauley suggesting that his third veteran 'recruit', Thomas Clarkson should resurrect his 1788 tour of the country, this time to campaign for the total abolition of slavery.

Clarkson would remain as a key speaker of the society and devote much of his time to working with James Cropper and others in disseminating anti-slavery materials to the United States.

[2] "His interest in it (abolitionism) was continually nourished by the discussions which took place, almost annually at the Friends' Yearly Meeting and especially by the close personal intercourse which soon grew up between him and Mr. James Cropper of Liverpool...… we need not wonder to find Mr. Sturge closing his report with the remark that 'during the discussion, and particularly while Mr James Cropper was speaking, an almost intense degree of interest was shown, and the numbers present far exceeded those at any of the previous sittings'...From this time forward Joseph Sturge was irrevocably committed to the cause of the slave, and soon began to enter upon that long series of active services in connection with it, which ended only with life.

"In August 1823, a slave revolt broke out on Liverpool Merchant John Gladstone's 'Success' plantation in Demerara[20] (part of modern-day Guyana, South America).

The rebellion also involved his father Quamina Gladstone and senior members of their church group, including allegedly its English pastor, John Smith of the London Missionary Society[21] who worked with the enslaved Africans.

[22] The brutal crushing of the rebellion also brought the general plight of the slaves in the sugar plantations to the attention of the British people and would thus bring closer the eventual abolition of slavery.

John Gladstone stated in no uncertain terms that he believed the slave revolt on his plantation had originated not in Demerara, South America but in Dingle, South Liverpool... "…at the same time printing and circulating those opinions, thereby instigating the negroes to insurrection, with its consequences, murder and destruction... ….the late revolt in Demerara (originating here)…"In 1824 the pro-slavery activist and geographer James MacQueen[26] berated both Thomas Clarkson and James Cropper for questioning the economic viability of West Indian slavery in his 427-page book The West India colonies: the calumnies and misrepresentations circulated against them by the Edinburgh Review, Mr. Clarkson, Mr.

"[29] The Cropper family scrapbook was filled with anti-slavery literature and contained a list of contacts in the United States who had already been shipped large packets of his abolitionist pamphlets from Liverpool.

Meeting on December 26th, 1832, at the Abysinnian Baptist Church, the city's people of color elected Samuel Hardenburgh as chair and Henry Sipkins as Secretary.

Thompson's first lecture tour of the United States in 1834, at the invitation of his lifelong friend William Lloyd Garrison,[35] coincided with that of Captain Charles Stuart.

[38] In 1833 the American abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison was invited to Dingle Bank, south Liverpool and the success of his lecture trip would depend heavily on Cropper's stage managing.

Upon arriving in Liverpool in May 1833 Garrison wrote;[39] "My excellent friend James Cropper has a delightful retreat, called Dingle Bank, which nature and art have embellished in the most attractive manner.

After the reading of a portion of the Scriptures, breakfast was served up, at the close of which Mr. Cropper rose and begged leave to introduce to the company William Lloyd Garrison, the Agent of the New-England Anti-Slavery Society, from America.

"Garrison also credited James Cropper with persuading William Wilberforce to cease his support for the American Colonization Society and its aim of encouraging the voluntary repatriation of black people back to the free African state of Liberia.

"Joseph Sturge travelled to the Caribbean, and his report to Parliament resulted in the apprenticeship scheme being scrapped two years early and true freedom coming to 800,000 enslaved people on 1 August 1838.

Stowe's major work, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) depicted the harsh conditions of slavery in the United States in the decades leading up to the American Civil War.

In her memoirs Stowe would write about her thoughts on the late James Cropper and his extended Dingle family as being the initiators of the 'abolitionist revival' that had resulted in the 1833 Abolition of Slavery Act and the freeing of some 800,000 people within the British Empire.

Its commercial interests were largely implicated in the slave trade, and the virulence of opposition towards the first movers of the antislavery reform in Liverpool was about as great as it is now against abolitionists in Charleston.

"Harriet Beecher Stowe once again congratulated James Cropper and his extended Dingle family, for initiating the 'abolitionist revival' that led to the total abolition of slavery within the British Empire in 1833.

[49] In organizing the World's First Anti- Slavery Convention in 1840, Joseph Sturge and the extended 'Dingle Group' had finally succeeded in uniting the major British and American abolitionists.

Known as the most generous man in Liverpool, John Cropper was made the subject of Edward Lear's nonsense poem "He Lived at Dingle Bank"[50] and is mentioned in Elizabeth Gaskell's novel Mary Barton (1849).

[54] According to Joshua Civin's the Revival of Antislavery in the 1820s at the Local, National, and Global Levels (2001) James Cropper could not have exerted such influence without the help of the ladies of the household.

Eliza Cropper was pivotal to the boycott of slave-grown produce and made-up parcels of East-Indies sugar and coffee grown by free labour which were then distributed amongst Members of Parliament.

[60] She also corresponded with the freed American slave, orator and politician, Frederick Douglass,[61] sending him presents of the book Dr Livingstone's Travels and a scarf for his wife.

In the House of Lords Denman had proposed a motion in favour of black emancipation as early as March 1826 and supported an inquiry into slavery in the West Indies (May 1826).

After his praise for Uncle Tom's Cabin Lord Denman hoped the novel would...Urge abolition as a paramount duty to God; and even in selfish, insolent, cruel, mean, and uncivilised slave states, the cry will prevail, and emancipation will be achieved.

In November 1840, Sir Richard Doherty, the Governor of Sierra Leone discovered that Prince Mauna, the son of King Siaka, was holding two black British subjects hostage.

Denman took three British warships, the Wanderer, Rolla and Saracen and with a force of 120 men, he went on a ruthless and systematic campaign along the African coast, burning 'slave factories' to the ground.

After freeing Fry Norman and her child, Captain Denman unilaterally drafted a treaty abolishing slavery in the Gallinas region and forced King Siaka to sign it.