Robert Wedderburn in 1824. Wedderburn, The Horrors of Slavery, 1824, (British Museum). Born in Jamaica to a black woman and a plantation owner, Robert Wedderburn (1762–1835/36) was a Unitarian, ultra-radical leader, and anti-slavery advocate in early nineteenth-century London. Wedderburn's father, James Wedderburn, was a Scottish doctor and sugar planter settled in Kingston, Jamaica, who while there had children by several different black women.
A prolific writer, speechmaker and pamphleteer, Robert had been born free on the insistence of his mother. Wedderburn was actually part of a radical group which agitated for agrarian reform and on behalf of the urban poor, and narratives such as his had a powerful effect in creating sympathy for the slaves in circles which were beyond the reach of the abolitionist and missionaries.
His father (James Wedderburn later returned to live in Britain. Although born free, Wedderburn was raised in a harsh environment, Politically influenced by Thomas Spence, Wedderburn published an anti-slavery book entitled The Horrors of Slavery in 1824, printed by William Dugdale and possibly coauthored by George Cannon. To promote his religious message, he opened his own Unitarian chapel in Hopkins Street in Soho in London. After he began to question Christian tenets he was later associated with Deism. He also campaigned for freedom of speech.
"The Horrors of Slavery", ostracized by the Wedderburns who for many years claimed he had no right to the Wedderburn name, a contemporary and acquaintance of Wilberforce (to whom his autobiography is dedicated), a strategic player in fomenting popular unrest in the cause for freedom whilst remaining faithful to his West Indian roots and promoting the case for the abolition of slavery, he was to be imprisoned and sentenced to hard labour for his outspoken radical views.
The British Labour politician Bill Wedderburn, Baron Wedderburn of Charlton, was a descendant of Robert Wedderburn.
