[Felix McCarthy (?-? )].

An appeal to the candour and justice of the people of England, in behalf of the West India merchants and planters, founded on plain facts and incontrovertible arguments.

London, printed for and published by J. Debrett, 1792.  

8°. XVI, 118 pp.

Disbound.

One of the most important pro-slavery publications from the Abolition era, this compilation of speeches against William Wilberforce’s call for the abolition of the slave trade includes an anonymous introduction and a connecting narrative attributed to “Captain Macarty” or Felix McCarthy (see Ragatz; Hogg).

Wilberforce’s bill called for the immediate end of the trade, but after extensive debate, it was amended to advocate only for its 'Gradual Abolition'. This was seen as a victory for the planter class, as no clear timeline for abolition was established. Despite multiple abolition bills being introduced, the trade would persist for another fifteen years.

According to Ragatz, Macarty received £100 from the Society of West India Planters and Merchants for the copyright. The brief introduction portrays planters and traders as victims of unjust criticism, arguing that 'every canting hypocrite and fanatical enthusiast' had been free to slander them without consequence. Macarty presents the included speeches as a 'calm' and 'impartial' examination of the abolition debate.

The reprinted speeches highlight key pro-slave trade arguments. James Baillie (1737–93), MP for Horsham and a colonial agent for Grenada, contended that abolition would devalue uncultivated lands and that colonists should be compensated. Benjamin Vaughan (1751–1835), MP for Calne and son of a Jamaican planter, initially opposed abolition, believing enslaved people were unprepared for freedom and fearing economic collapse, though he later reversed his stance. Banastre Tarleton (1754–1833), MP for Liverpool, warned that Britain’s withdrawal from the trade would simply benefit other European powers and accused abolitionists of fabricating petition signatures. Finally, Robert Banks Jenkinson (1770–1828), MP for Rye, while admitting the trade’s moral wrongs, opposed immediate abolition and proposed measures to increase slave fertility instead. His plan was rejected, but a compromise bill for 'Gradual Abolition' ultimately passed with strong support.

Edition

this important pamphlet was one of the 6 reproduced and introduced in volume 4 of The British Transatlantic Slave Trade, without mention of editions. However, according to the JCB catalogue there are two editions of this book. The one in the JCB has the catchword CHANTS on p. viii, ours has “imputed” instead, as does the reproduction in The British Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Condition: inscribed in ink on top of the title: “John Morgan Esq. Parliament …”, likely Welsh politician John Morgan (of Dderw), who sat in the House of Commons from 1769 to 1792. Also faintly in pencil “slavery” on the title.

C3 with tear at gutter (not affecting text), light soiling and chipping to title and final leaf, disbound.

Reference:

ESTC T4520.

Hogg, The African slave trade, no. 2357 [misnumbered in index as 2857].

Sabin 1779.

Morgan, Kenneth. The British Transatlantic Slave Trade. Vol. 4. Ed. by David Ryden. 1st ed. London: Routledge, 2021, pp. 133-265.

Ragatz, Lowell J. The Fall of the Planter Class in the British Caribbean, 1763-1833. Century Co., 1928.