This volume traces the experiences of seven African American abolitionists who travelled to Ireland during the tumultuous years after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850: Eli Stokes, William Allen, Isaac Davison, William Mitchell, William Troy, James Cheeney Thompson, and Robert Maxwell Johnson.

Despite their diverse life stories, many of these visitors shared deeply held evangelical beliefs, with the ambition to save souls being central to their mission. This aspiration resonated in an era when Christianity and civilisation were widely conflated. Although this book focuses on these seven men – clergy, academics, lecturers – it also examines their interactions with other activists, authors, and actors, and how they negotiated the complex intersections of politics, culture, religion, race, ethnicity, physical appearance and gender. Moreover, through the involvement of Canada and Africa, notably Liberia, they gave the abolition movement a transnational presence. Each of these abolitionists attracted extensive press coverage during their time overseas, and three published successful biographies, yet they have largely faded from view in the historiography. Nonetheless, individually and collectively their contributions to ending enslavement and to Black advancement were considerable.

This book will be of value to students and scholars interested in modern European history and social and cultural history.