Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor

Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor
Thomas Gainsborough · Public domain · source
Name	Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor
Formation	1786
Founder	Granville Sharp, Sir William Dolben, Olaudah Equiano
Type	Charity
Headquarters	London
Region served	Great Britain
Key people	Henry Thornton, James Stephen, Thomas Clarkson
Purpose	Relief of impoverished people of African descent in London

Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor was an ad hoc philanthropic body formed in 1786 in London to provide assistance to destitute people of African and African-British descent. The Committee brought together abolitionists, philanthropists, clergy, and merchants to coordinate subsistence relief, public fundraising, and eventual resettlement proposals involving Sierra Leone and the Province of Freedom. Its activities intersected with debates across Parliament of Great Britain, Court of St James's, evangelical networks, and Atlantic abolitionist campaigns.

Background and formation

The Committee emerged from intersections among abolitionism, evangelical activism, and imperial concerns after the American Revolutionary War and during debates over the Transatlantic slave trade. Prominent figures connected to earlier initiatives such as the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, the Clapham Sect, and philanthropic institutions including Magdalene Hospital and the Foundling Hospital met with representatives of black Londoner communities like Olaudah Equiano and returned Black Loyalists from Nova Scotia. Public discourse after events such as the Spithead mutiny and the presence of Black poor in parishes like St Giles, London and Whitechapel intensified calls for organized relief and for schemes associated with the Province of Freedom and earlier proposals by Granville Sharp.

Membership and organization

The Committee’s roster combined activists, clergymen, MPs, and merchants including Granville Sharp, Henry Thornton, Sir William Dolben, James Stephen, Thomas Clarkson, John Wesley, and William Wilberforce. It drew support from networks tied to the Clapham Sect, the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and philanthropic circles around Lord Chancellor Erskine-era reformers. Meetings were held in locations associated with evangelical societies and charitable committees that linked to parish vestries in Westminster and Southwark. The Committee coordinated with municipal officials at Guildhall, London and solicited donations from figures like Earl of Buchan, Lord Nelson (as contemporary celebrity reference), and city merchants active in Atlantic trade hubs including Liverpool and Bristol.

Relief efforts and activities

The Committee administered weekly distributions of food, clothing, and coal, and organized cottage allowances and parish-based assistance for households in St Giles, London, Shoreditch, and Whitechapel. It worked with local parish overseers, workhouse officials, and charitable institutions including the Foundling Hospital and temperance advocates from evangelical circles. The Committee also supported educational and religious instruction in collaboration with missionaries associated with Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge and promoted literacy using publications linked to John Wesley and Olaudah Equiano. Fundraising involved public subscription notices in The Times and appeals to benefactors such as Sir William Dolben and members of the Clapham Sect.

The Sierra Leone resettlement project

Facing continuing destitution, the Committee endorsed a proposal to resettle some beneficiaries in Sierra Leone under a colonial undertaking that echoed the earlier Province of Freedom experiment. The project coordinated passage for hundreds of Black poor, including Black Loyalists and London-based veterans of the American Revolutionary War, to a settlement near Freetown in an enterprise involving the Sierra Leone Company and patrons including Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson. The scheme intersected with imperial actors such as the Royal Navy (transport), merchants from Liverpool and Bristol, and colonial administrators in West Africa. The 1787 expedition encountered high mortality from disease, disputes over governance with settlers including Black Loyalists of Nova Scotia, and tensions with local African polities and European trading companies.

Impact and controversies

The Committee’s work generated praise from abolitionist circles and criticism from municipal authorities, evangelical rivals, and commercial interests in Liverpool and Bristol. Critics questioned costs, governance of the Sierra Leone Company venture, and the Committee’s use of public subscriptions; opponents included some parish overseers and MPs concerned with poor relief law such as those involved in debates within the Parliament of Great Britain. Advocacy by figures like William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson framed the endeavor as moral reform, while opponents invoked public order anxieties tied to incidents in St Giles, London and the presence of destitute groups around Blackfriars. Debates implicated broader imperial policy toward freed people during the post‑American Revolutionary War era, return migration schemes like those involving Nova Scotia and the Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate, and transatlantic networks including the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade.

Legacy and historical assessments

Historians assess the Committee as a pivotal node linking abolitionism, evangelical philanthropy, and early colonial experiments in Sierra Leone. Scholarship connects its activities to later developments in the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act 1807, the growth of missionary societies such as the Church Missionary Society, and transatlantic Black diasporic histories including the experiences of Black Loyalists and settlers in Nova Scotia. Critiques emphasize paternalism, high mortality in the 1787 settlement, and contested motives among patrons. Commemorations of figures like Olaudah Equiano and institutions like the Sierra Leone Company continue in studies of Atlantic history, imperial settlement, and the politics of charity in late‑eighteenth‑century London.

Category:History of slavery Category:Charities based in London Category:Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate