Dickens and slavery
Sir: I much appreciated most of Jonathan Sumption's review of Vol. X of The Letters of Charles Dickens of which I was editor (Books, 5 September); but I must bring up one point, because it is surely a highly
LETTERS
important one. Jonathan Sumption writes, 'He regarded black slavery as perfectly acceptable.' I should like to know his evi- dence for this. Chapter 7 of American Notes (1842) is a hymn of hatred of slavery; its `atrocities' come in the first sentence. The only letter in which he discusses his attitude to slavery at length is to Lord Denman's daughter (20 December 1852), defending himself against her father's attack on him for his satirical portrait of Mrs Jellyby. It is a carefully argued statement of his own anti-slavery stance.
Graham Storey
Crown House, Caxton, Cambridge
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