Category Archives: The Letters
Horatio Nelson to Simon Taylor, 10 June 1805
21/02/1807
Horatio Nelson first met Simon Taylor during the American Revolutionary War, while stationed in Jamaica. The two remained in touch. As Nelson remarks towards the end of this letter, by 1805, they had been acquainted for about three decades. The letter was written while Nelson pursued the French fleet in the Caribbean, during the months […]
Also posted in Abolitionism, Armed forces, British Government, Defence of slavery, Navy, Revolution/War, Slave trade, Slave trade abolition, War Tagged Caribbean, empire, History, Horatio Nelson, slavery, William Wilberforce Comments Off on Horatio Nelson to Simon Taylor, 10 June 1805
Simon Taylor to Simon Richard Brissett Taylor, 30 August 1806
30/08/1806
Taylor’s letters reflect the dilemmas of slaveholding colonial planters with British identities who had, nevertheless, become disillusioned about their place within the empire. By 1806, Taylor was recommending his nephew, and principal heir, Sir Simon Brissett Taylor, who was by then aged twenty-two, to explore the possibility of moving the Taylor family and their investments […]
Also posted in Family, Kingston, North America/USA, Slave trade abolition Tagged Simon Richard Brissett Taylor, Simon Taylor Comments Off on Simon Taylor to Simon Richard Brissett Taylor, 30 August 1806
Simon Taylor to George Hibbert, Kingston, 29 August 1804
29/08/1804
Taylor commented to George Hibbert on the failure of Wilberforce’s abolition bill to pass the House of Lords in 1804. By this time, he was fully aware that such a setback would be unlikely to deter future efforts by his political adversaries. He claimed, however, that if the British state were compelled to pay financial […]
Also posted in Abolitionism, British Government, Defence of slavery, Kingston, Revolution, Slave trade, Slave trade abolition, St Domingue/Hispaniola, Trade Tagged Duke of Clarence, George Hibbert, Lady Stanhope, Lord Stanhope, Simon Taylor, William IV, William Wilberforce Comments Off on Simon Taylor to George Hibbert, Kingston, 29 August 1804
Simon Taylor to Chaloner Arcedeckne, 5 December 1792
05/12/1792
At the end of 1792, Taylor wrote to tell Arcedeckne about his fear at the prospect of an end to the slave trade. The Jamaican assembly had produced a report, laying out their opposition to abolition and emphasising the economic value of the current slave system to the mother country. Such economic arguments were an […]
Also posted in Abolitionism, British Government, Defence of slavery, Spanish Town, Trade Tagged Chaloner Arcedeckne, George Grenville, Simon Taylor, William Grenville, William Pitt Comments Off on Simon Taylor to Chaloner Arcedeckne, 5 December 1792
Simon Taylor to Chaloner Arcedeckne, 5 December 1792
05/12/1792
Following a petition by free people of colour seeking civil rights to the Jamaican assembly, Taylor confided to Arcedeckne that he feared that events could go the same way in Jamaica as they had in French Saint-Domingue, where clashes between free people of colour and whites had preceded a large-scale slave uprising. He was worried […]
Also posted in Abolitionism, Christianity, Defence of slavery, Free people of colour, Revolution, Spanish Town, St Domingue/Hispaniola Tagged Chaloner Arcedeckne, Granville Sharp, Simon Taylor, Thomas Clarkson, William Wilberforce Comments Off on Simon Taylor to Chaloner Arcedeckne, 5 December 1792