Abolition of the slave trade

14. Buxton Memorial - Victoria Tower Gardens

The Buxton Memorial fountain was constructed in 1865 in memory of the abolitionist MP Thomas Fowell Buxton.

Its original location was in Parliament Square. It was moved to its current location in Victoria Tower Gardens 1957.

Buxton was one of the founders of The Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery in 1823. In May of the same year, he spoke out against the dehumanising nature of the trade in the following manner: “The slave sees the mother of his children stripped naked and flogged unmercifully; he sees his children sent to market, to be sold at the best price they will fetch; he sees in himself not a man, but a thing - an implement of husbandry, a machine to produce sugar, a beast of burden!”.

In 1825, following the retirement of William Wilberforce from the House of Commons, Buxton led the parliamentary campaign for emancipation. Buxton’s book ‘The African Slave Trade and its Remedy’ suggested the development of trade in raw materials and produce between Great Britain and local rulers in Africa would ultimately destroy the trade in people.

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