British Abolitionism and the Rhetoric of Sensibility: Writing, Sentiment and Slavery, 1760-1807 (Palgrave Studies in the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Cultures of Print)

Book info: British Abolitionism and the Rhetoric of Sensibility: Writing, Sentiment and Slavery, 1760-1807 (Palgrave Studies in the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Cultures of Print) (Paperback, 248 pages) – Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Language: English.

British Abolitionism and the Rhetoric of Sensibility argues that participants in the late eighteenth-century slavery debate developed a distinct sentimental rhetoric, using the language of the heart to powerful effect in the most important political and humanitarian battle of the time. Examining both familiar and unfamiliar texts, including poetry, novels, journalism, and political writing, Carey shows that salve-owners and abolitionists alike made strategic use of the rhetoric of sensibility in the hope of influencing a reading public thoroughly immersed in the 'cult of feeling'. Editorial Reviews Review

' British Abolitionism and the Rhetoric of Sensibility is a timely intervention in the scholarly study of the abolitionist movement. It consider, and suggests answers to, the criticisms some feminist and postcolonial scholars have levelled against eighteenth-century abolitionist writings...it offers a largely convincing reading of an important, little-understood area of eighteenth-century discourse.' - Anthony John Harding, Romanticism

About the Author BRYCCHAN CAREY is Senior Lecturer in English at Kingston University in London. He has co-edited Discourses of Slavery and Abolition and Abolition: Britain and its Colonies, 1760-1838, and has published widely in the academic press, including articles on William Wilberforce, Ignatius Sancho, John Wesley, The Spectator, and the politics of Harry Potter.