Anna Laetitia Barbauld

Posts in The Copybook credited to ‘Anna Laetitia Barbauld’

Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743-1825) was an English poet and children’s author, who with her husband Rochemont founded and ran Palgrave Academy in Suffolk. In 1791, Barbauld published a denunciation of slavery following a setback for William Wilberforce in the Commons, and together with her brother John Aikin, between 1792 and 1796 she published Evenings at Home, a six-volume collection of short tales, dialogues and dramas intended for children that covered fantasy, basic science and social morality. Her publishing came to an abrupt end after 1811, when she released a poetic reproof to the nation for trying to hold on vainly (as she believed) to global domination by opposing Napoleon. Barbauld’s claim that Lady Commerce had chosen the USA as her favourite, and that Britain would lose and fade away, was savaged by the critics.

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Master and Slave by John Aikin

A runaway slave is recaptured, and charged with ingratitude by the master who has taken such pains to afford him economic security.

Between 1792 and 1796, John Aikin and his sister Anna Barbauld published a series of children’s stories titled ‘Evenings at Home.’ Among them was an imaginary dialogue in which a plantation owner accused a slave of ingratitude for running away. It is relevant not only to the history of Abolition but also to that politics which promises cradle-to-grave security in exchange for letting an elite shape our world.

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