Race

Introduction

Robert Wedderburn was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1762, the son of an enslaved African called Rosanna and a sugar planter, James Wedderburn of Inveresk, near Edinburgh. James Wedderburn sold Rosanna when she was five months pregnant to one Lady Douglas, on condition that the unborn Robert would be free from birth. Robert Wedderburn arrived in Great Britain in 1778 and became a tailor. He was converted to Christianity by a Wesleyan preacher and became a committed Methodist. He was influenced politically by the radical democrat, Thomas Spence (1750-1814), and published an argument against slavery, The Horrors of Slavery, in 1824. He continued to campaign for freedom of speech, but in 1831, aged 68, he was arrested for brothel-keeping and sent to Giltspur Street Prison in London for two years. His involvement in public life thereafter was minimal. It is not known where he died, but it is estimated that he died in 1835-6.

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