George Donisthorpe Thompson (18 June 1804-7 October 1878) was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 antislavery orator and activist who worked toward the abolition of slavery through lecture tours and legislation while serving as a Member of Parliament

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

. He was arguably one of the most important abolitionist and human rights lecturers both in Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Early life

Thompson had little formal education, and was largely self-taught. In early adulthood, he began a life of professional activism, starting with his role in founding a mutual improvement society at the age of eighteen, as well as his membership in debate societies. This suggests an early interest in self-betterment and the issues of the day. His father worked aboard a slave trading vessel, and that his stories of the horrors of the slave trade planted the issue in the younger Thompson’s mind from an early age. He recalls the stories that his father told in some of his later writings, recounting his father’s observations of the inhumane treatment of slaves.

Activism in England

As a professional activist, his interest in slavery was awakened by a newspaper advertisement in 1831, calling for men to join the London based Anti-Slavery Society. Thompson had little knowledge of slavery, though had gained a reputation as an able orator. He was hired by the society to try to get slavery immediately abolished on moral and religious grounds, a concept called "immediatism." He quickly took up the dissemination of the Society's creed: "To uphold slavery is a crime before God, and the condition must therefore be immediately abolished." In 1832 he traveled to Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, where he gained an interested in the abolition of slavery in the United States another parts of the world. While in Scotland he also met William Lloyd Garrison

William Lloyd Garrison

William Lloyd Garrison was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer. He is best known as the editor of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, and as one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, he promoted "immediate emancipation" of slaves in the United...

 who would remain a lifelong friend and colleague, as well as Nathaniel Paul, an African American abolitionist. From 1836-1847 he was active in every major anti-slavery debate in Britain, including the Anti-Slavery Convention

Anti-Slavery International

Anti-Slavery International is an international nongovernmental organization, charity and a lobby group, based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1839, it is the world's oldest international human rights organization, and the only charity in the United Kingdom to work exclusively against slavery and...

 in London on 12 July 1840. In 1847 was elected to the British House of Commons

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

, as a Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for Tower Hamlets

Tower Hamlets (UK Parliament constituency)

Tower Hamlets was a parliamentary borough constituency in, Middlesex, England from 1832 to 1885. It elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...

.

Thompson was also an advocate of East Indian reform, free trade, Chartism

Chartism

Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1859. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838. Chartism was possibly the first mass working class labour movement in the world...

, nonresistance

Nonresistance

Nonresistance is generally defined as "the practice or principle of not resisting authority, even when it is unjustly exercised". At its core is discouragement of, even opposition to, physical resistance to an enemy...

, and the peace movement. However, he was most prominent in his work to eliminate slavery at home and abroad, often protesting legislation that offered limited or gradual restriction on slavery. Favoring a quick and decisive emancipation of all slaves, he was ultimately unsatisfied with the British Emancipation Act of 1833, because it forced slaves to work as apprentices for six years after their "liberation." He therefore used his position in Parliament to push for additional legislation.

Activism in the United States

George Thompson was an active lecturer, and he willingly pointed out the role that America played in the perpetuation of slavery. He first came to the United States in 1834, where he attracted the attention of pro-slavery men, and barely escaped being captured by them after one of his lecturing sessions. The resistance to his platform did not abate, and he was forced to return to Britain. Thompson’s return to the United States in 1850 was brought about by the Fugitive Slave Law, and he was this time quite popular amongst proponents of abolitionism, now that the movement had increased in size and influence as the 1850s wore on.

In 1859, his son in law, Frederick William Chesson and Thompson founded the London Emancipation Society which strongly reported the Uninionist side in the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

.

During this final visit in 1864 he allied with William Wells Brown

William Wells Brown

William Wells Brown was a prominent African-American abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian. Born into slavery in the Southern United States, Brown escaped to the North in 1834, where he worked for abolitionist causes and was a prolific writer...

 in advocating the destruction of slavery. He also met with Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

, and both supported and witnessed the final destruction of the Confederacy

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

 at Fort Sumter in 1865.

Return to England

Thompson became ill and traveled back to his home country, where he died in 1878. While his advocacy of abolitionism went relatively unnoticed after his death, his efforts to effect a worldwide abolitionist movement cannot be ignored. His profession as activist allowed him to make a living by supporting the cause that he cared about, as well as enabling him to make unprecedented steps in freeing enslaved peoples around the world.

External links

• The Liberator Files, Items concerning George Thompson from Horace Seldon's collection and summary of research of William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator original copies at the Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts.