Sir James Stephen: The Friend of the Negroes

James Stephen, the ‘Black Race’ and British colonial administration, 1813–47

“…9 Knaplund implies, however, that the remark was untypical and exceptional and that, whatever Stephen thought of Asians, his belief in racial equality did consistently apply to the benighted blacks of Africa and the New World. 10 The sincerity of Stephen's anti-slavery views is surely no longer in dispute, nor should there be much doubt about the devotion which he displayed in attempting, as he put it, 'to do some good to the children of Ham'. 11 But his views on 'the black race' are complex and deserve closer scrutiny than even Knaplund's caveat might suggest.…”