Important Letter from a Formerly Enslaved British Abolitionist

[West Indies] Significant Autograph Letter, Signed, from a Formerly Enslaved West Indian to the British Abolitionist Zachary Macaulay, with a Transmittal Letter from Macaulay to Dr. Stephen Lushington

Cleghorn, Ralph Brush

Publication: St. Kitts: 29 June 1833.

Notes: An extraordinary eight-page manuscript letter from Ralph Cleghorn (1804–1842) who was born into slavery in St. Kitts in the West Indies and became a leading abolitionist and advocate for black civil rights in the British empire. Near the end of his short life, Cleghorn was appointed president of the Council of Nevis, a small British island adjacent to St. Kitts, "the first... man of African descent [who] was entrusted with the government of a West Indian colony" (quoted in Edward L. Cox, "Ralph Brush Cleghorn of St. Kitts (1804–1842)", Slavery and Abolition, vol. 28, no. 1 (April 2007), p. 53.

The letter is especially revealing because Cleghorn wants to express his reluctant support for the pending Abolition Act (which would be passed a month after this letter was written), and he seeks Macaulay's help in obtaining a government post in the West Indies. The letter portrays Cleghorn as a political radical who has suffered personally and economically for his positions and actions, while also making a case for his upstanding English character and suitability for a government post. "My earlier life, education and habits," he writes, "have all been adapted...to the discharge of public duties."

The letter is marked "private" perhaps because in it Cleghorn admits complicity in the efforts to shelter the fugitive slave Elizabeth (Betto) Douglass. Douglass's case had become a rallying point for British abolitionists. Cleghorn expresses concern about the ruinous financial penalties he could face if his activities were to be discovered. The fugitive slave act in St. Kitts, he explained, "provides that persons who shall be in any [way] instrumental in keeping slaves from their owners shall be liable to pay such owners not less than 12s. Currency per day for every day" the enslaved person is kept away. He describes the amount as "enormous" since she has been out of "the grasp of her persecutor" for eight years, although Cleghorn says he has only been involved for "the last four."

Cleghorn wanted full and immediate emancipation of slaves in the British colonies but reluctantly supported the gradual end to slavery in the proposed (and soon-to-be-passed) Abolition Act if that was the best that could be achieved at the moment. He is encouraged that enslaved men and women would be allowed to give evidence in court under the new law, that minimal standards of food and shelter could be enforced, and that the Act "thank God at last abolishes the flogging of females."

Much of what is known about Cleghorn's early life comes from this letter (although he doesn't mention being born into servitude). At age five, his father took him to England for an education. He returned to St. Kitts as a young man and married. When his father died about the same time, he used his inheritance and support from a friend in England to open a shop selling imported goods (probably in the capital city of Basseterre). That produced a good income and he became the richest free colored man in the city (and possibly the island). Like many wealthy free colored families, Cleghorn owned slaves, "in all 14 or 15" he writes, which were inherited from his father and were his wife's property when they married.

He had a change of heart in 1828 or 1829 and took on the abolitionist cause and was selected to represent the free colored residents of St. Kitts in London, an unofficial lobbying position. About that time, he freed his slaves. His business began to decline because "the white population (planters) who are of course the only buyers" on the island, began boycotting his store, refusing, he writes, "to purchase a single article at my Establishment."

The letter continues by asking Macaulay for support, and Cleghorn mentions that Dr. Lushington, another well-known abolitionist, had promised to help him secure a government post. In the transmittal letter to Lushington (24 August 1833) accompanying Cleghorn's letter, Macaualay writes, "I certainly feel extremely anxious if possible to do something for Cleghorn. His conduct has been highly meritorious and uncompromising, and we ought to spare a little personal trouble to mark our sense of his worth."

After the Abolition Bill passed in 1833 (and thus after the date of this letter), Cleghorn ran for a seat in the St. Kitts legislature, one of two colored men elected that year. Perhaps with the help of Macaulay and Lushington, Cleghorn received an appointment as a magistrate, with a stipend about a quarter of what he made in business (in his letter, he proposed being given more lucrative positions). According to Edward Cox, who has written the most about Cleghorn, he used the position to support the rights of the enslaved against plantation owners. Several years later, Cleghorn was appointed to the unpaid role of Inspector of Prisons, a position he used to advocate for penal reform. In October 1841, he was appointed the president of the Council of Nevis, the governing body of the island adjacent to St. Kitts. According to Cox, at the time, colonial officials believed he was the first person with African heritage to be placed in charge of a colony.

Only a handful of Cleghorn's letters are known to survive. This one is one of the most significant. It was reprinted in Vere Langford Oliver (ed.), Caribbeana, vol. VI, p. 141–143.

Two sheets, folded to make 8 pages. 8 by 10 inches; watermarked TEdmonds 1831. Transmittal letter slightly larger; one page with a stampless cover on the verso (back), Britannia watermark.

PROVENANCE: Vere Langford Oliver (see his The Monumental Inscriptions of the British West Indies, p. 135, describing this letter as "in the editor's collection"); Jay Kislak (purchased Sotheby & Co, Feb. 12, 1968; lot 503).

Edition + Condition: Cleghorn's letter is very good with old folds. Paper tanned. Macaulay letter with minor loss at the fold intersections.

Item No: #364036

Sold

Status: On Hold