Slavery: A Poem by Hannah More

Slavery: A Poem (1788) is today one of the most-widely anthologized works by Hannah More on account of the work’s literary merits as an early Romantic work and on account of its role in the British abolitionist movement. Slavery was written and released as part of a multi-pronged strategy appealing for public and Parliamentary support for pro-abolition legislation. The poem draws deeply on the earlier neoclassical period that influenced More’s early life and work while at the same time reflecting the spirit of both Romanticism and revolution, making it a work that displays a transitional period in literary and political/social history. Exhibiting both poetic exuberance and restraint, the poem offers a powerful argument against the slave trade by appealing to compassion, patriotism, human equality, emotion, and reason, ultimately all grounded in More’s Christian faith. The poem has a long and varied critical history, being seen by some as overly sentimental and imperialistic but by others as an exemplary model of the rhetoric of reason.