Robert Thorpe was a judge and political figure in Upper Canada and was later chief justice of Sierra Leone.
Portrait of Robert Thorpe
The African Institution was founded in 1807 after British abolitionists succeeded in ending the slave trade based in the United Kingdom. The Institution was formed to succeed where the former Sierra Leone Company had failed—to create a viable, civilised refuge for freed slaves in Sierra Leone, in West Africa. It was led by James Stephen and William Wilberforce. From 1823, its work was mostly taken over by the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions, and it ceased to exist sometime between 1826 and 1828.
The New Union: Club, Being a Representation of what took place at a celebrated Dinner, given by a celebrated – society, a racist print of 1819 by George Cruikshank. It portrays a dinner at the African Institution, stereotyping the black people present. Billy Waters, a Black London street entertainer, amuses the crowds. White abolitionists William Wilberforce, George Stephen, Zachary Macaulay and Robert Wedderburn are present at the event.