This book examines the lives, writings and activities of four Quaker businessmen who were founders of organized slavery abolitionism in Great Britain: Joseph Woods, Samuel Hoare, George Harrison and James Phillips. All four men were founding members of the London Abolition Committee in 1787, helping to transform abolitionism into a national political movement. The author also considers the possible link between abolitionism and the values emerging from the growth of the market economy and the developing consumer society in late 18th-century Britain.