Who resisted and campaigned for abolition?

George Caley of Rochdale

Personal experience of slavery

George Caley was a botanist who spent his childhood in Middleton near Rochdale, and went to the West Indies as curator of the botanic gardens in St Vincent  where he acquired a personal African slave.

On his death in 1829 he gave this slave his freedom. His will states:

 'Also I direct that a negro called Washington who belongs to me in the Island of St Vincent in the West Indies shall be set free and I do hereby give and bequeath to him his freedom'.

Touchstones Rochdale has a copy of a letter written by George Caley, as well as items donated by the Middleton Botanical Society, of which George Caley was a member.