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The Buxton Table was the table around which William Wilberforce MP and
others, including its owner Thomas Buxton MP, discussed and drafted
the Bill for the Abolition of Slavery in the British Dominions, in
1833. The table is a circular library table and dates from around
1810. It is made of mahogany veneer over a pine carcass and ironically
was typical of the library or rent tables to be found in West India
planters’ house in London and overseas.
The table’s provenance is recorded on a brass plaque screwed to its
top, which reads:
‘This table, hallowed by intense labour and earnest desires, now
happily fulfilled was presented to the Poplar Hospital in 1855, by Sir
Edward N.B. Buxton, Bart though Mr. Samuel Gurney, the Founder of the
Hospital.
It has been the property of Thomas Fowell Buxton MP and round it had
sat with him at 54 Devonshire Street between 1823 and 1833
William Wilberforce MP
Zachary Mcaulay
Dr Lushington
And others discussing and drafting the Bill for the Abolition of
Slavery in the British Dominions, which received the Royal Assent May
28th 1833’
Its provenance makes it one of the most symbolic of all surviving
artefacts relating to Britain’s past association with slavery and the
slave trade. This is an example of the ‘hidden’ history that is
increasingly being uncovered with new(ish) galleries at the NMM
Greenwich, Maritime Museum Liverpool, and the new Empire and
Commonwealth Museum, Bristol. The table will form part of the new
London, Sugar and Slavery gallery opening at the Museum in Docklands
on 10 November 2007.
Thomas Buxton, who was born in Essex, was closely related to the
Gurney family of Norfolk. The Gurneys were staunch Quakers and the
girls were all attracted to radical ideas and thinking. Elizabeth
Gurney is better known to us as Elizabeth Fry the prison reform
campaigner.
In 1818 Buxton became MP for Weymouth and began an active campaigner
for prison reform and the reduction of capital punishment. Around 1820
he became involved in the campaign against slavery and in 1822 he was
persuaded to take over the leadership of the Abolition campaign in
parliament. William Wilberforce was now in poor health and Buxton,
among others, thought him too conservative.
From 1823 the Anti-Slavery Society was established and its leaders,
including Buxton, Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, Zachary Macaulay and
Dr Lushington met regularly at this table to coordinate the campaign
and draft the bill for the Abolition of Slavery. With their help an
Act was passed to abolish slavery in British colonies in 1833.
The table became the property of the Gurney family after Buxton’s
death. The Gurney’s were among the Trustees of the Poplar Hospital,
which was established partly to provide medical aid to injured dock
workers and sailors, and in 1855 they donated the table to the
Hospital. In 1975, the table was donated to the Passmore Edwards
Museum in Newham. When the museum closed it was put into store by
Newham Heritage Services who were unable to display it. In 2003 Newham
loaned the table to the Museum in Docklands for conservation and
display.
The table is now displayed alongside other artefacts relating to the
slave trade, in Museum in Docklands which is housed in the 1802 West
India Quay warehouse that saw much of the West Indies traded goods –
including sugar and rum – from the slave plantations.
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