A Royal Plea to End Slavery: The Letter the Palace Ignored

In 1786, a parcel arrived at the London home of George, Prince of Wales. The sender was Ottobah Cugoano, a free Black man and abolitionist. The package contained pamphlets describing the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade. An accompanying letter, written under an alias, urged the future king to read them. Cugoano pleaded with the prince to "consider the case of the poor Africans." He wrote they were treated in a "most unjust and inhuman manner." This direct appeal to the monarchy for action went unanswered. Cugoano's story is part of a new examination of the royal family's historical links to slavery.