William Morgan (abolitionist)

William Morgan (1815–c.1890) was a leading member of the Birmingham Anti-Slavery Society[3] whose members were very influential in abolitionist movements in Britain. He became the Town clerk in Birmingham[3] and gave a collection of books to Birmingham Library.[2]

William Morgan
William Morgan in a detail from a painting at the National Portrait Gallery.[1]
Born1815
Diedc. 1890[2]

Morgan was the third son of the Reverend Thomas Morgan.[4]

Morgan was trained as a solicitor and worked in Birmingham.[5] He was an active member of the Birmingham Anti-Slavery Society which campaigned for abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1838. On the anniversary of the abolition a celebration was again held in Birmingham and it was Morgan who distributed information and invitations to the local Sunday Schools.[6]

Morgan was a founder of the local Baptist Union and served as secretary to the Birmingham Anti-Slavery Society[5] when British slavery was made illegal (in 1838). The picture above shows him at the 1840 Anti-Slavery Convention which was organised by Morgan's colleague Joseph Sturge. Morgan served as a secretary at the 1840 convention. He continued to work with Sturge during the 1850s.

In 1866, the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society sent Morgan to Jamaica.[5]

Morgam had married Henrietta Barnard on 6 March 1841 from Nailsworth in Gloucestershire.[4]

Works
  • The Arabs of tía City or a Plea for Brotherhood with the Outcast - Address to the YMCA, Birmingham, 1853 (when he was Town Clerk of Birmingham), Hudson and Son, London

References
  1. National Portrait Gallery
  2. William Morgan at Connecting Histories.org.uk, accessed 29 July 2008
  3. The Birmingham Anti-Slavery Society, Connecting Histories.org.uk, accessed 29 July 2008
  4. The Baptist Magazine, Baptist Missionary Society
  5. Civilising Subjects: Metropole and Colony in the English Imagination 1830-67, Catherine Hall, ISBN 978-0-7456-1821-0
  6. The Culture of English Antislavery, 1780-1860, David Turley, 1991, p.93, ISBN 0-415-02008-5
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