The limits of abolition: Government, saints and the `African question', c. 1780-1820.

Examines the implication of the British government's involvement in Sierra Leone colony during the period 1780 to 1820 for its commitment to the abolition of slave trade and the `civilization' of Africa. Development of British interest in Africa in late eighteenth-century; Arguments of British abolitionists; Role of colony governor Thomas Perronet Thompson in the slave trade abolition.