Someone who fought against slavery, challenged the leaders of the abolitionist movement for not demanding its immediate end, demanded better conditions for workers and did all this as a woman in 19th century Britain deserves to be celebrated and remembered. Especially as what she fought against -- slavery and exploitation of workers -- remain problems even in our time. Jocelyn Robson has performed a valuable service in writing this biography of Elizabeth Heyrick and it deserves a wide readership.

Eric Lee

Dr Robson’s is the first biography of Elizabeth Heyrick, one of the group of women – many like her based in provincial cities - who made an impact on the campaign for the abolition of slavery during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Making use of some hitherto unavailable family sources, it tells how Heyrick, a Quaker based in Leicester, worked determinedly to shift the movement from the Wilberforce belief in ‘gradual’ to a demand for the ‘immediate’ abolition of the inhumane institution. Her particular contribution to the success of the campaign was as a writer; in the composition of pamphlets written with an uncompromising moral force and clarity the outstanding one of which, ‘Immediate not Gradual’, is reproduced in the book. This is a substantial and valuable addition to our knowledge of the movement – and of the life and times of one of its most important activists in her provincial setting; a moving and informative read enhanced by a number of particularly interesting illustrations.

Bill Bailey, Freelance Historian