Charles Gilpin was a Quaker, orator, politician, publisher, and railway director. Among his many causes were repeal of the Corn Laws, establishing world peace through the Peace Society, abolition of the death penalty, abolition of slavery, enfranchisement by providing freehold land for purchase, liberation of Hungary from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Hungarian exiles in England, the Poor Law, prison reform, and foreign relations. He was "a thorough liberal".

Joseph Sturge was an English Quaker, abolitionist and activist. He founded the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. He worked throughout his life in Radical political actions supporting pacifism, working-class rights, and the universal emancipation of slaves. In the late 1830s, he published two books about the apprenticeship system in Jamaica, which helped persuade the British Parliament to adopt an earlier full emancipation date. In Jamaica, Sturge also helped found Free Villages with the Baptists, to provide living quarters for freed slaves; one was named Sturge Town in his memory.