Along with his friend William Wilberforce, Thomas Gisborne was a prominent figure in the ‘Clapham Sect’, a group of evangelical Anglicans that sought to abolish the Atlantic slave trade. This book, first published in 1789, was a criticism of the utilitarian philosophies of William Paley. Paley’s own Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1785) were very influential among moderate Anglicans but criticised by other factions in the church. While Paley argued that the consequences of an action determined whether it was right or wrong, Gisborne followed the views of Immanuel Kant, stating that certain actions (such as the enslavement of others) were inherently wrong

This copy, from George III’s private library at Windsor, is of Gisborne’s third edition (1795) and includes additional remarks on Parliament’s continuing rejection of bills that sought to restrict and eventually abolish the slave trade. Continued campaigning by Gisborne and Wilberforce eventually resulted in the abolition of the trade in 1807 with the full abolition of slavery across the British Empire being achieved in 1833, effective from 1838.