Despite the importance of the Slave Trade Question in European diplomacy from 1807-1822, historians of this period have neglected it in order to concentrate on Napoleon and the reconstruction of Europe. Scholars of Negro history generally have traced the slave trade up to 1807 and then have turned to the emancipation movement. This thesis represents an attempt to satisfy the need for a diplomatic study of this issue.

This thesis has three main objectives in examining the Slave Trade Question, an aspect of British-American diplomacy from 1840-1862: (1)to give a balanced treatment to both issues,(2) show their relationship to other foreign and domestic problems of the early Victorian Era, and (3) to present new material and views.