CABINET PHOTOGRAPH OF THOMAS HARVEY BY W. HANSON OF LEEDS 'ON THE MORNING OF HIS LAST ILLNESS'
Production date
1884
Production organisations
W. HANSON
Labels
Thomas Harvey (1812 – 1884) was a prominent Leeds Quaker and chemist whose religious beliefs led him to a life devoted to charity, campaigning for the rights of the oppressed across the world.
Although the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 abolished slavery across most of the British Empire, only children under six were immediately freed. Outside Britain, all formerly enslaved people over six years old were reclassed as apprenticed Labourers, bound to serve their former owners for up to six more years. In 1836, Harvey joined a mission to the West Indies to investigate this controversial system, and his damning report helped bring the scheme to an early end, with the granting of full emancipation in 1838.
Later in life Harvey would return to Jamaica. He travelled to Finland to assist those affected by the Crimean War and visited Mennonites in Russia suffering from religious persecution. These were long, arduous trips, which were often at the expense of his poor health, and despite family tragedies, but Harvey felt it was his duty to help those in need, wherever they were.
At home in Leeds, Harvey ran a successful business as a chemist, a trade he had learnt during childhood apprenticeships in Sheffield and Birmingham. He was also involved with local causes such as the first School Board for Leeds, and the Institution for the Blind and Deaf and Dumb.
In 1884, Harvey attended the Quakers’ annual meeting in Canada, but the journey proved too strenuous, and he suffered several attacks of illness. Back home, on the morning of 19th December, Harvey visited W. Hanson’s photography studio to have this photograph taken for his Canadian friends. The weather was extremely bad, and returning home, Harvey fell ill with pneumonia. He was nursed at home by his family over the following days, dying peacefully in his bed on Christmas Day.
Jennifer Wright, Hidden Histories Project Researcher
