Captain Philip Beaver’s journal, originally published in 1805, recounts his attempt to establish a colony in West Africa with British settlers to demonstrate that cooperation between Africans and Europeans could supply the tropical produce provided by West Indian plantations, so proving the unhumanitarian transatlantic slave trade to be unnecessary.
‘Captain Philip Beaver’s utopian ambition was to end Britain’s slave trade by growing tropical pro-duce on a West African island. This excellent edition of his journal, a key document for understand-ing abolitionism, describes the outcasts who signed up for his radical republic, as well as the tragic idealism of this Romantic-era colonising enterprise.’ — Deirdre Coleman, author of Romantic Colo-nization and British
Anti-Slavery
‘A fascinating account of a disastrous attempt to establish a colony of freed former slaves and poor white folk on an island off the African coast, superbly annotated and introduced by Carol Bolton. A must for anyone studying or teaching the anti-slavery movement and the history of African colonisation.’ — Tim Fulford, Professor of Eng-lish, De Montfort University
Carol Bolton is a senior lecturer in English at Loughborough University. Her research centres on Romantic-period writing that represents travel, exploration, and colonialism.