Anti-Slavery Poetry

Anti-Slavery poetry is often criticized today for portraying idealistic and stereotypical representations of Africans and slaves. However, in its own time, some of this poetry reached a wide audience and it often did educate its readers about the injustices of slavery.

The poet, playwright, and writer Hannah More (ca. 1745-1833) was a tireless advocate for evangelical and reform movements. Supportive of the abolitionist cause until the end of her life, More disseminated anti-slavery sentiment through her poetry. Her poem “Slavery” (1788) attracted significant public attention, and “The Sorrows of Yamba,” also attributed to More, was widely circulated in broadside, pamphlet, and musical forms.

Continue the tour

• Thomas Clarkson
• Stowage on the British Slave Ships
• William Wilberforce
• Anti-Slavery Poetry
• Poems on the Abolition of the Slave Trade
• Elizabeth Heyrick
• Olaudah Equiano