The National Library of Ireland (NLI) is now the custodian of the written works of Richard Robert Madden, an acclaimed Irish abolitionist. Before the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire in 1833, Madden was a steadfast adversary of the inhuman practice. Subsequently, he served as a dedicated magistrate in the Caribbean, striving to eliminate the transatlantic slave trade altogether.
Fellow Irishmen like Daniel O’Connell and Howe Peter Browne, the Marquess of Sligo, were also fervent anti-slavery advocates. Despite not being as famous, Madden’s role in exposing the atrocities of the slave trade was fundamental.
Madden, one of 21 siblings, was born in 1798 in Dublin. Before transitioning into a judicial role as a special magistrate in Jamaica following the British Empire’s abolition of slavery, he was a medical doctor and author of travel literature. Madden’s crusade against slavery extended to Cuba, where he was the inaugural commissioner for freed slaves, additionally assuming temporary judicial duties in Havana. Both these positions aimed at curbing the global slave trade.
In 1840, at the initial World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, he participated as a Cuba specialist. During the same year, his powerful testimony in support of illegitimately enslaved Africans was instrumental in securing a favourable verdict in the Amistad case. This ruling mandated the liberation of African individuals who had revolted onboard the Spanish vessel La Amistad.
The US upheld this ruling, which stimulated the abolitionist cause and signaled the impending cessation of slavery in the country. The sequence of events was subsequently portrayed in Steven Spielberg’s 1997 film, ‘Amistad’.
Thomas More Madden, his son, compiled bound collections of Madden’s compositions and correspondence, featuring letters to Charles Dickens and Florence Nightingale. His father’s life, Thomas asserted, was driven by “a profound passion for justice and an intense loathing of any form of oppression, no matter the location or the race it victimized.”
Madden was an acclaimed poet and author, most notably celebrated for his comprehensive seven-volume series narrating the United Irishmen’s role and the 1798 rebellion, depicting the rebellion as a courageous yet unsuccessful endeavour. His literary contributions on the subject of the slave trade were deemed highly crucial as well.
The charge of special collections, Colette O’Flaherty, appreciates Madden as a highly regarded humanitarian and an abolitionist who made significant contributions in his lifetime. She stated: “His influential writings centred around issues of human rights, or what we now term as humanitarian issues. Being of Irish middle-class descent, he condemned this severe infringement.”
With the ongoing focus on the Black Lives Matter movement and its emphasis on the legacy of slavery, the timing of these acquisitions is deemed appropriate. Madden, in his literary works, was keen to associate the slave trade with the suppression of Catholics in Ireland, both perceived as integrated elements of the broader issue of repression, stated historian Cian McMahon.
Recently, genealogical research highlighting that Kamala Harris, the US vice-president and Democratic presidential candidate, comes from an Irish ancestry involved in the slave trade has drawn considerable attention. The Northern Irish historian, Stephen McCracken, mentioned that Ms Harris’s paternal great-great-great-great-grandfather, Hamilton Brown, was born in Antrim County in 1776 (the year the US Declaration of Independence was proclaimed). Brown migrated to Jamaica, a former British colony, where he enthusiastically owned slaves on the sugar plantations, a significant part of the local economy.
According to the University College London (UCL) records, Brown received compensation worth approximately €11 million in today’s value from the British government for his owned slaves. When slavery got banned in the British Empire, more than 100 Ireland residents received compensation for their incurred losses, whilst another 180 people had Irish addresses.