Slavery: finally, the time had come for a major step to be taken. Oh, no, not the actual abolition of slavery itself. But at least the abolition of the trade in slaves.

Funnily enough, that’s something Pitt might have taken on. But he didn’t. He seems to have been a man who understood that politics was the art of the possible. Though sometimes he saw as impossible what might have been in his grasp. Like the slave trade abolition.

In the end, that fine move had to be undertaken by his successors. They were the Ministry of All the Talents. Or, depending on your point of view, the Ministry of all the Blunders.

Illustration: ‘Am I not a man and a brother?’ Medallion designed for the British Anti-Slavery Campaign by Josiah Wedgwood and either William Hackwood or Henry Webber, 1787. Public domain.

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License