Robert Wedderburn - a tribute

 

THE ADDRESS     OF THE   REV. R. WEDDERBURN, To the Court of King's Bench at Westminster, on appearing to receive judgment   FOR BLASPHEMY,     WHEN HE WAS SENTENCED TO   TWO YEARS IMPRISONMENT IN DORCHESTER JAIL On Tuesday the 9th of May, in Easter Term 1820. EDITED BY ERASMUS PERKINS.   `Man has a right to think all things, speak all things, and write all things, but not to impose his opinions.’ Machiavelli.   `Fabulas et errores ab imperitis parentibus discimus; et quod est gravius, ipsis studiis et disciplines elaboramus.’                                                          . Minutius Felix   LONDON: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY T. DAVISON, 10, DUKE STREET, SMITHFIELD. Four pence.

Robert Wedderburn - a tribute Robert, it has been suggested, may have continued to assume his role as a radical preacher to provide himself with a degree of protection from prosecution for his radical and revolutionary pronouncements. It is difficult to reconcile his sceptical views with those of a true believer in the traditional teachings of Christianity, particularly towards the end of his days. Bitter experience throughout a harsh and unrewarding life in Jamaica and England had left him with no illusions as to the  realities of existence facing the poor and the racial minority sub-cultures alike. As he grew increasingly aware of the manner in which an educated white middle-class elite colluded with the priesthood to ensure the perpetuation of a society where both were able to retain all their advantages, his bitterness grew. His faith (if it had ever truly existed) in a God, who could permit such circumstances to arise, was rapidly undermined. He could not hide his disillusionment. For this unlettered man, abandoned by his father, separated from his mother, brought up in circumstances of dire poverty and discrimination at the close of the 18th century, his  insights into the nature of existence were quite astonishing. It is not easy for us today, in these sceptical times, to appreciate the extent of his achievements, raised  in this rational, scientific age, with the freedom to hold views and to speak our mind with few restrictions. Robert’s era was still greatly influenced by superstition, subject to repression, deliberate suppression of education of the masses to perpetuate the under-class deference for their ‘masters’, a time when freedom of expression was restricted by a ruling class fearful of the rumblings of discontent from within a working class afflicted simultaneously by great poverty and increasing unemployment after the Napoleonic Wars. His bravery in speaking out, unconcerned by the threat of arrest, execution, was immense. He refused to compromise when some of his fellow radicals were shifting position to safer legal ground, or going into hiding abroad. Imprisoned and sentenced to hard labour, he turned his back on an offer of assistance from Wilberforce, a man he admired considerably, as this would have implied compromising his conviction that the lot of the working poor and those enslaved in the West Indies were one and the same. He remained true to his convictions to the end of his days. He was to die in obscurity and poverty, yet unbroken, still committed to his vision of a new order where all peoples and minorities would be treated justly, with humanity. No doubt completely unsuspecting that his notoriety in an age of intolerance would eventually be replaced by respect and admiration nearly two centuries later, Robert  Wedderburn, acknowledged  today as a pioneer in the struggle for the right to freedom of expression, was a true visionary, and a hero of his time.

Prepared by:

Peter Garwood
L'Eau Salée
Malaucène
84340 France


Send e-mail to: peter.garwood@wanadoo.fr

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