Daniel O'Connell and the Anti-Slavery Movement - 'The Saddest People the Sun Sees' (Hardcover)

This study offers invaluable insight into a much-neglected area of historical research on this nineteenth-century political figure. Previous histories on O'Connell have dealt predominantly with his attempts to secure a repeal of the 1800 Act of Union and on his success in achieving Catholic Emancipation in 1829. In this title Kinealy focuses instead on the neglected issue of O'Connell's contribution to the anti-slavery movement in the United States. She argues that by using his influences over Irish immigrants in the United States, O'Connell negotiated a position of importance in the international debate over the right to freedom. The anti-slavery movement occupied an important place in O'Connell's wider commitment to humanitarian politics. He was both a member of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and Secretary of the Glasgow Anti-Slavery Society and he developed an international reputation as an influential spokesman on the issue.