author
Joseph Sturge
1793–1859
A Quaker reformer from Birmingham, he became one of Britain’s most important anti-slavery campaigners and pushed for immediate emancipation when others argued for slower change. His work also reached beyond abolition, linking peace, political reform, and social justice in a single public life.
1 Audiobook
A Visit to the United States in 1841
by Joseph Sturge
About the author
Born in Gloucestershire in 1793, Joseph Sturge built a successful grain business after moving to Birmingham, but he is best remembered for turning his energy and money toward reform. A committed Quaker, he opposed violence and worked for causes he saw as connected: the end of slavery, fairer politics, and better treatment of ordinary working people.
Sturge became a leading figure in the campaign against slavery in the British Empire. After visiting the Caribbean in the 1830s to investigate conditions for himself, he published accounts that helped expose the harsh realities of the so-called apprenticeship system that followed formal emancipation. He also helped found the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, the organization that later became Anti-Slavery International.
He stayed active in public life for the rest of his career, supporting peace efforts and reform movements as well as abolition. Sturge died in 1859, but his name remained closely tied to Birmingham’s reform tradition and to the wider fight for freedom.