Celebrating the Bible in Black History

Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade

By: John Newton

Collection ID

PBK.006008

Type

Printed Book

Date

1788

Geography

London, England

Language

English

Medium

Printed on Paper

Dimensions

7.3 × 4.3 × 0.2 in. (18.5 × 11 × 0.5 cm)

Exhibit Location

Not on View

Author John Newton had been quietly mentoring a young politician named William Wilberforce during the rise of the anti-slavery movement in England. Newton’s perspective on slavery, being a reformed slave ship captain, intrigued Wilberforce and gave him powerful evidence of the atrocities of slavery to present to parliament. Newton publicly entered the discussion on abolition with his Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade. In it, he described the Middle Passage as a cramped and dangerous journey that did not allow the passengers enough room to stand, move, or even turn over without difficulty. He states, “They are kept down, by the weather, to breathe a hot and corrupted air, sometimes for a week: this added to the galling of their irons, and the despondency which seizes their spirits when thus confined, soon becomes fatal.”

Published in 1788 by J. Buckland, Pater-Noster Row, and J. Johnson and Co., St. Paul’s Churchyard, London, England. Privately purchased in 2020 by Ted Steinbock, private collector, Louisville, Kentucky; Privately purchased in 2020 by Museum of the Bible, Washington, DC.

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