Author: Raymund Harris
Born: c1750
Died: 1789
Bio: **Raymund Harris** (c1750?-1789)

Raymund Harris – rather a shadowy figure and a Spaniard, whose real name was **Raimundo Hormasa**, was a Jesuit priest who was expelled from his homeland by his religious order for arguing that there were religious arguments in favour of the slave trade which were approved by the Pope, Catholic countries and Christians, and so moved to Liverpool in 1773. There he worked as joint priest in charge of a secret Catholic church concealed within a warehouse. He quarrelled with his fellow-priest over the administration of the church's finances, and, after several years of wrangling, the Bishop ruled that he should not be permitted to exercise his ministry within ten miles of Liverpool. After further disputes, he eventually resigned from the church, and spent the last few years of his life campaigning in defense of the slave trade.

He caused controversy in Liverpool and London with his pamphlet Scriptural Researches on the Licitness of the Slave Trade Showing its Conformity with the Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion.

Liverpool Corporation made it clear that they appreciated Harris’s efforts. They gave him a vote of thanks and a gift of £100 (equal to just over £7000). The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade sponsored pamphlets in reply by James Ramsay, William Roscoe and Henry Dannett (of Liverpool). Harris’s argument that the scriptures supported the slave trade was challenged by Dannett who argued that nowhere in the scriptures was there an instruction to captains to engage in the slave trade.

The anti-abolitionists tried to argue that there was no truth in the abolitionists’ arguments that slaves were cruelly treated. The Liverpool delegates to the Lords Committee of Council, set up to investigate the slave trade in February 1788, tried to present the slave trade as humane. In a debate in 1791 Banastre Tarleton suggested that those who were looking for philanthropic work should concern themselves with the poor laws instead of spending their time attempting to ruin a trade that was of great benefit to the country.

The production of pamphlets and the sending of letters to the press allowed anti-abolitionists and abolitionists to present their views in print. The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade sponsored a number of pamphlets in response to Harris’s work. The authors of these pamphlets included the Reverend Henry Dannett, Minister of St John’s Church, Liverpool and Reverend James Ramsay. William Roscoe (1753-1831) was the anonymous author of another response called A Scriptural Refutation of a Pamphlet lately published by the Rev. Raymund Harris entitled, ‘‘Scriptural Researches on the Licitness of the Slave Trade.’’ in Four Letters from the Author to a Friend.

Anti-abolitionists felt strongly about their opposition to the planned abolition of the slave trade. There were three main methods which anti-abolitionists used to present their views to the public and to Parliament: petitions which were presented to Parliament; pamphlets which were circulated across the country;and letters, which many anti-abolitionists sent to the press.

Petitions were signed by anti-abolitionists in the three leading slaving ports Liverpool, London and Bristol. Between 1788 and 1807 anti-abolitionists presented sixty-four petitions to Parliament. Liverpool petitioners argued that the slave trade was an activity which had been carried on legally in the port, and had created enormous wealth with the approval of Parliament, but was now being presented as inhumane.

Liverpool Corporation sent at least twelve petitions against the abolition of the slave trade. Liverpool merchants sent fifty-two petitions plus two with London merchants. After Liverpool Common Council sent its first petition to the House of Lords on 14 February 1788, the number of petitions increased. Eight were sent between 19 June and 10 July 1788, and in May 1789 twelve were sent in one day. Over 11,000 individuals signed the largest of the petitions. In 1804 the Liverpool merchants sent a petition to the House of Lords. It was produced on nineteen pages of parchment tied with a black silk ribbon and decorated with three red-sealed rosettes. The list of merchants’ signatures on the petition included Thomas Leyland, the Tarleton, Aspinall and Earle brothers.

In May 1806 a 1000 name petition signed by merchants and the Mayor Henry Clay was presented to the House of Lords. In January 1807, as abolition drew nearer Liverpool Corporation and the Dock Trustees petitioned the Lords against the proposed bill. They pointed out the impact which abolition would have upon the life of the port and those who relied upon it for their living. They hoped that compensation would be granted if the bill became law.

By careful selection of quotations from the Bible, principally the Old Testament, it was possible to portray slavery as part of the divine order. This argument is presented in its starkest form in this pamphlet by the Rev. Raymund Harris, in which he attempted to show that 'the Slave Trade is perfectly consonant to the principles of the law of nations, the Mosaic Dispensation and the Christian Law, as delineated to us in the Sacred Writings of the Word of God'. Quoting from the Book of Leviticus, he asserted that God 'does not say ... of them MAY ye buy bond-men and bond- maids, but of them SHALL ye buy bond-men and bond-maids'. From this he drew the apparently logical conclusion that 'the word of God encourages the persecution of the slave trade'.

This interpretation of the Bible met with such approbation amongst the Corporation of Liverpool, the principal slave trade port, that they presented Harris with £100 as a mark of their appreciation.

Many anti-abolitionists who used the press chose, like the abolitionist Roscoe in his response to Harris, to remain anonymous. They used pseudonyms (an invented name) such as ‘Mercator’, ‘A Friend of Old England’, ‘Take Time’, ‘Philo-Africanus’, ‘Anglus’, ‘Justinian’, ‘Niger’, ‘RO’ and ‘Well-wisher to Old England’ to hide their identities. Archibald Dalzel, one of the Liverpool delegates to the Lords Committee of Council in 1788, wrote to the press under the pen-name ‘Vindex’, and the writer ‘Justinian’ denounced the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade for opposing liberty.

He died soon after publishing this pamphlet in 1789.


> Note: this brief biography thanks to researcher and historian by *Ric Greaves*


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**Sources**

> 1.  Liverpool: H. Hodgson, 1788; RHO: 100,221 r.196
> 2.  J. Stockdale, 1788 pp77