{"id":63119,"date":"2022-02-17T02:24:40","date_gmt":"2022-02-17T02:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=63119"},"modified":"2022-02-22T22:27:06","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T22:27:06","slug":"moses-roper-the-fugitive-from-slavery-cast-aside-by-british-abolitionists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=63119","title":{"rendered":"Moses Roper: the fugitive from slavery cast aside by British abolitionists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moses Roper: the fugitive from slavery cast aside by British abolitionists<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/a>
\n2022-02-16<\/p>\n

Mark Brown<\/strong><\/a>, North of England correspondent<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Moses Roper<\/a>, painted in 1839, was the first fugitive enslaved person to lecture in the cause of abolition<\/a> in Britain<\/a> and Ireland<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Historians argue Roper\u2019s story could have helped end US slavery<\/a> earlier but supporters turned on him<\/em><\/p>\n

In his day, the 19th-century fugitive from slavery Moses Roper<\/a> was a well-known public figure who toured Britain<\/a> and Ireland<\/a> telling gripped and shocked audiences about his horrific experiences in Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today he is largely overlooked but, two Newcastle University academics argue, the important story of this fascinating man represents a \u201clost opportunity\u201d for the British abolition movement<\/a> to have helped end slavery in the US<\/a> earlier.<\/p>\n

Bruce Baker<\/a>, a reader in American history, said it was surprising how little attention had been paid to Roper, given he was a pioneer. \u201cHistorians haven\u2019t really paid a lot of attention to Roper, even though he was the first fugitive slave to lecture in the cause of abolition in Britain and Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baker and his colleague Fionnghuala Sweeney<\/a>, a reader in American and Black Atlantic Literatures, have now published a paper in an academic journal<\/a> and are working on a full biography of Roper. They aim to rescue him from obscurity, painting a picture of a radical, driven man ruined by the British abolition movement that turned against him.<\/p>\n

Roper fled enslavement in Florida in 1834 and, fearing for his safety, made his way to Britain, where he was supported by churchmen and abolitionists. They helped fund his education and in 1837 he published the first edition of his Narrative of the Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper from American Slavery<\/em><\/a>…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Historians argue Roper\u2019s story could have helped end US slavery earlier but supporters turned on him<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1245,28,459,8,10,20],"tags":[33045,33041,33040,3707,3192,246,22606,1449,2103],"class_list":["post-63119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-biography","category-europe","category-history","category-media-archive","category-uk","category-usa","tag-bruce-baker","tag-bruce-e-baker","tag-fionnghuala-sweeney","tag-florida","tag-georgia","tag-ireland","tag-mark-brown","tag-south-carolina","tag-the-guardian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63119"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63220,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63119\/revisions\/63220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}