Joseph Sturge (1793–1859) was an English Quaker who was influential in campaigning for the abolition of slavery in the British empire and founded the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in 1839. Having visited the West Indies in 1834, he travelled to the United States in 1841 to examine the slavery question there firsthand, and to lend his support to the American abolition movement by sharing his experiences of how success was achieved elsewhere. His account of his visit, and of the feelings and opinions of the American campaigners he met, is the subject of this 1842 book, which he hoped would encourage activists around the world and promote understanding among them.