Students of political theory will welcome the return to print of this brilliant defence of ordered liberty. Impugning John Stuart Mill's famous treatise, On Liberty, Stephen criticised Mill for turning abstract doctrines of the French Revolution into "the creed of a religion". Only the constraints of morality and law make liberty possible, warned Stephen, and attempts to impose unlimited freedom, material equality, and an indiscriminate love of humanity will lead inevitably to coercion and tyranny. Liberty must be restrained by custom and tradition if it is to endure; equality must be limited to equality before the law if it is to be just; and fraternity must include actual men, not the amorphous mass of mankind, if it is to be real and genuine.
Written as four public letters, this book condemns the intention by the French to reinstate older slavery practices on its colonies in the West Indies. James Stephen (1758–1832) was a lawyer who, after moving to St Kitts with his family to earn a living, became a supporter of the abolition movement. On his return to London in 1794, Stephen became involved with the anti-slavery group, the Clapham Sect, whose members included William Wilberforce, and with whom Stephen developed a lifelong friendship. Elected as a Member of Parliament in 1808, Stephen contributed to drafting legislation for slave registration on the island of Trinidad, which became a model for other slave colonies. Stephen believed that the reinstatement of older slavery practices on French colonies in the West Indies would lead to slave revolts, and have significant consequences for the neighbouring British colonies. This work was published in London in 1802.
The lawyer and leading abolitionist James Stephen (1758–1832) published Volume 1 of The Slavery of the British West India Colonies Delineated in 1824. The volume is an exposure of the cruel and oppressive legal system of slavery in the British West Indies. The work explores the origin of nineteenth-century colonial slave laws, the legal status of individual slaves, the legal relations between slaves and their masters, and the policing and governance of slave populations. In each chapter Stephen exposes the cruelty and inhumanity behind the West Indian slave laws. Stephen had been the legal mastermind of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which abolished the slave trade in the British Empire but not slavery itself. This important work was influential in directing public opinion against slavery and helped lead towards the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act. It is a key text in the progression of the nineteenth-century abolitionist movement.
The lawyer and leading abolitionist James Stephen (1758–1832) published Volume 2 of The Slavery of the British West India Colonies Delineated in 1830. The volume is an exposure of the cruel and oppressive practice of slavery in the British West Indies. It investigates the living conditions, feeding and clothing of slave populations; the brutal practices, such as 'slave driving', involved in forcing labour; and, by comparisons of forced and free labour, argues for the complete abolition of slavery. Stephen had been the legal mastermind of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which abolished the slave trade in the British Empire but not slavery itself. This important work was influential in directing public opinion against slavery and helped lead towards the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act. It is a key text of the nineteenth-century abolitionist movement and is vital for understanding the arguments and debates that led to abolition.
James Stephen (1758–1832) was a British lawyer and slavery abolitionist. After qualifying for the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1782 Stephen sailed for St Kitts in 1783. The atrocities committed against slaves which he witnessed in the West Indies converted him to the abolitionist cause, and after his return to England in 1794 he campaigned on behalf of the abolition movement. This volume, first published in 1804, contains Stephen's discussion of Britain's political choices following the successful Haitian Revolution (1791–1804). Before the Revolution, Haiti was one of the wealthiest colonies in the Caribbean, which Britain had attempted unsuccessfully to acquire by force. Stephen explores the complex political situation created by Haiti's declaration of independence, and advocates for Britain to acknowledge Haiti as a sovereign state. Stephen's thorough assessment of Britain's political choices and their potential impact provides valuable insights into contemporary trade and political motivations surrounding Haiti.
Title: Lectures on the History of France.Publisher: British Library, Historical Print EditionsThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC.The HISTORY OF EUROPE collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. This collection includes works chronicling the development of Western civilisation to the modern age. Highlights include the development of language, political and educational systems, philosophy, science, and the arts. The selection documents periods of civil war, migration, shifts in power, Muslim expansion into Central Europe, complex feudal loyalties, the aristocracy of new nations, and European expansion into the New World. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library Stephen, James; 1851. 2 vol.; 8 . 1319.h.8,9.
Title: Lectures on the History of France.Publisher: British Library, Historical Print EditionsThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC.The HISTORY OF EUROPE collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. This collection includes works chronicling the development of Western civilisation to the modern age. Highlights include the development of language, political and educational systems, philosophy, science, and the arts. The selection documents periods of civil war, migration, shifts in power, Muslim expansion into Central Europe, complex feudal loyalties, the aristocracy of new nations, and European expansion into the New World. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library Stephen, James Right; 1851. 2 vol.; 8 . 1319.h.8,9.
