| Administrative History | Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton (1786-1845), 1st baronet, was an English Member of Parliament (from 1818), brewer, abolitionist and social reformer. He can be seen in Benjamin Robert Haydon's painting of The Anti-Slavery Society Convention in 1840. In May 1823, at the time of this correspondence, Buxton introduced in the House of Commons a resolution condemning the state of slavery as "repugnant to the principles of the British constitution and of the Christian religion", and called for its gradual abolition "throughout the British colonies". He succeeded William Wilberforce as the leading member of Parliament campaigning for the abolition of slavery. |