Many individual Scots were involved in the movement to abolish slavery or helped fugitives of slavery in Scotland in their quest for freedom. The Church of Scotland and other churches were also involved in the petitioning of parliament to abolish the slave trade in the late-eighteenth century and early-nineteenth century and individual church ministers baptised enslaved individuals in order to aid their attempts to gain freedom. The Court of Session cases challenging the status of slavery in Scotland reveal that local people helped fugitives of slavery. The NRS and SCAN online catalogues and the National Register of Archives can be used to some extent to search for material about the abolition movement and leading abolitionist figures, such as William Dickson of Moffat and William Wilberforce. See under 'Searching the NRS, SCAN and NRAS online catalogues' below. Researchers into the abolition movement in Scotland should refer to Iain Whyte, Scotland and the Abolition of Black Slavery, 1756-1838 (Edinburgh University Press, 2006).
Court of Session cases
The Court of Session, Scotland’s supreme civil court, heard some cases concerning the commercial and property-owning aspects of the slave trade. Three cases concerning the status of enslaved people in Scotland also survive among the unextracted processes of the court in the NRS, as follows:
Montgomery v Sheddan, 1756
Among the petitions, declarations and other submissions by Sheddan and Montgomery in Court of Session (NRS reference CS234/S/3/12) there survives the bill of sale from Joseph Hawkins, Fredricksburg, to Robert Sheddan of ‘One Negroe boy named Jamie’ (9 March 1750). To read more, see the feature on the Montgomery slavery case on the Learning section of this website.
Spens v Dalrymple, 1769
The papers in unextracted processes are NRS reference CS236/D/4/3 box 104 and NRS reference CS236/S/3/13. For more information, see the feature on the Spens slavery case in the Learning section of this website.
Knight v Wedderburn, 1774-7
The unextracted processes for this case (NRS reference CS235/K/2/2) include an extract of process by the Sheriff Depute of Perth against Sir John Wedderburn (1774) and memorials by Wedderburn and Knight. For more information, see the feature on the Knight slavery case in the Learning section of this website.
