International Carl Bernhard Wadström Conference on Human Rights and the Abolition of Slavery

Organized by the Centre for Scandinavian Studies Copenhagen-Lund (CSS), in conjunction with the Swedenborg Society and the Anglo-Swedish Society, the International Carl Bernhard Wadström Conference on Human Rights and the Abolition of Slavery is a three-day conference on Swedish and British cosmopolitanism and philanthropy of the eighteenth century, with a particular focus on the life, work and impact of Carl Bernhard Wadström (1746-99). An interdisciplinary and international group of researchers have been invited to speak at the Conference to shed light on Wadström’s achievements and influence in the fields of economy, science, abolitionism, travel writing, African colonial history, Swedenborgianism, philanthropy, utopianism and human rights. For a full list of speakers and the Conference programme visit website.

biog: CARL BERNHARD WADSTRÖM (1746-99), was a Swedish economist, writer and Swedenborgian who is today chiefly remembered for his pivotal role in the antislavery movement. He worked tirelessly for the abolition of slavery, writing two hugely influential works on the matter: Observations on the Slave Trade (1789) and An Essay on Colonization (1794-5), the latter becoming the key text for the economic and humanist arguments against slavery. These books gained Wadström an audience with the British Prime Minister, William Pitt, and brought him into close contact and collaboration with the leading British abolitionists, William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp.