Robert Wedderburn | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1762 |
| Died | 1835/1836? London, England |
| Known for | The Horrors of Slavery, published in 1824 |
| Parent(s) | James Wedderburn Rosanna |
Robert Wedderburn (1762 – 1835/1836?) was a British-Jamaican radical and abolitionist of multiracial descent active in early 19th-century London. Wedderburn was born in Kingston, Jamaica, an illegitimate son of an enslaved Black woman, Rosanna, and Scottish sugar planter James Wedderburn. During his life, Robert Wedderburn sought to reconcile his political priorities and religious views.
Influenced by millenarian ideas, he moved from Methodism and towards Unitarian leanings, before rejecting Christianity and embracing a deist outlook. An early freethinker, the combination of his deist views, associations with well-known radicals and atheists, and utopian political ideals, led to his arrest for breach of blasphemy laws. In 1824 he published The Horrors of Slavery, a tract which influenced the Abolitionist movement.