James Macqueen

Reprint of the original, first published in 1838.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1838.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1864.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1864.

A collection of original Scottish Country Dances to accompany the recording of the same name by the band StringFire! Also includes all of the original tunes from that recording

In 1829 the Church Missionary Society began operations in the African kingdom of Abyssinia (Ethiopia). The Anglican clergyman Charles Isenberg (1806–64) joined the mission there in 1835, followed by Johann Ludwig Krapf (1810–81) in 1837. Soon afterwards, opposition to the Society's presence in Abyssinia caused them to leave. However, they were determined to establish a base in the central Ethiopian kingdom of Shoa (Shewa), and did so in 1839, entering from the Yemeni port of Mocha. Isenberg stayed in the capital, Ankobar, from 7 June until 6 November 1839, while Krapf remained until 1842 and travelled to other, lesser-known parts of the country. This work, published in 1843, is an account of their period of missionary activity, told through their journals. It begins with a geographical account of the region by the leading specialist of the time, James MacQueen (1778–1870), widely considered one of his most important works.

James MacQueen (1778–1870) was a British geographer fascinated by the problem of the River Niger. He set out to try to establish (on the basis of accounts by explorers, traders and missionaries), that one and the same river flowed continuously through Africa and into the Atlantic Ocean, thus challenging long-established beliefs that African rivers either disappeared into the sand or terminated in lakes. MacQueen documents his findings in this pioneering work, first published in 1821. Drawing on evidence from a range of authorities, he argues that previous misconceptions about the Niger had left Africa isolated from the civilised world, and shows how his discovery could open up trading opportunities between Africa and other countries, suggesting that contact with Europeans would lead to the eventual abolishment of the slave trade in the interior. This important study remains relevant to scholars of both geography and African history today.

James MacQueen (1778–1870) was a British geographer and also one of the most outspoken critics of the methods of the British anti-slavery campaign in the 1820s and 1830s. Although he never visited Africa, he became an acknowledged expert on the continent, through reading all available accounts, ancient and modern, as well as interviewing slave merchants while managing a sugar plantation in the West Indies. This work was published in 1840, and was aimed at assisting the expansion of colonial trading interests. In the preface he is critical of the efficacy of British attempts to eradicate the slave trade, and also of the ill-preparedness and often fatal ignorance of many explorers. He believed that with better information and planning, European involvement in Africa could be much more effective, and that the slave trade could be better reduced by the work of missionaries and by increased trade than by military intervention.

James MacQueen (1778–1870) was one of the most outspoken critics of the British anti-slavery campaign in the 1820s and 1830s. A former manager of a sugar plantation in the Caribbean, he was editor of the Glasgow Courier, a paper that favoured West Indian merchant interests and opposed rights for slaves. First published in 1824, this book is a direct attack on contemporary anti-slavery campaigners, such as William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, whom MacQueen holds responsible for 'the dreadful misrepresentations scattered abroad' about West India colonies and the planters. MacQueen, who insists on calling himself an enemy of slavery 'in the abstract', argues that abolition in the colonies would lead to insurrections, bringing chaos and barbarism to these territories. This, in turn, would lead to the loss of the British colonies. This volume remains an essential document in the context of post-colonial studies.