School of Critical Studies

Robert Wedderburn (1762 – 1835): Scottish-Jamaican radical preacher and revolutionary

Robert Wedderburn was the son of James Wedderburn, a Scottish planter in Jamaica, and an enslaved woman, Rosanna. In London, Robert became a Unitarian preacher and the leader of a radical working class movement. He combined demands for an uprising against landed privilege in Britain with calls for a slave uprising against their masters in the colonies. In this way, he has become a key figure for recovering marginalised histories of black, anti-colonial and working-class resistance. This talk will draw out the implications of his life and writings for modern, multi-cultural concerns in a devolved Scotland that is yet to come to terms with its imperial past.   

is studying a cultural history of Scotland, the Caribbean and the Atlantic world c.1740-1833 in the English Literature department of the University of Glasgow.

(Optional reading: Horrors of Slavery and Other Writings by Robert Wedderburn, ed. by Iain McCalman, Markus Wiener (Princeton: 1991).

Wednesday 10th October 6.30pm

African Caribbean Centre

66–68 Osborne Street

(Beside 13th Note Café)

First published: 10 October 2012