Zachary Macaulay

Zachary Macaulay (2 May 1768 – 13 May 1838) was a Scottish statistician, one of the founders of London University and of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, an antislavery activist, and governor of Sierra Leone, the British colony for freed slaves. Like his famous son Thomas Macaulay, he divided the world into civilisation and barbarism with Britain representing the high point of civilisation because of its adherence to Christianity. He worked endlessly to end the slave trade and to Christianize and improve the world.

Macaulay was born in Inveraray, Scotland, the son of the Rev. John Macaulay (1720–1789), minister in the Church of Scotland, grandson of Dòmhnall Cam. His mother was Margaret Campbell. He had two brothers, Rev. Aulay Macaulay, scholar and antiquary, and Colin Macaulay, General, slavery abolitionist and campaigner.

Receiving only a rudimentary education, he eventually taught himself Greek and Latin, and read the English classics. Having worked in a merchant's office in Glasgow, he fell into bad company and began to indulge in excessive drinking.

In late 1784, at the age of sixteen, to get his life into some kind of order, Macaulay emigrated to Jamaica, where he worked as an assistant manager at a sugar plantation. He was at first deeply affected by the horrific violence of the slavery which surrounded him, and, eventually as a result of his disgust at the sight of people being kept in wilful ignorance, at the age of 24 (according to "Life and Letters of Macaulay" by G.O Trevelyan Volume 1 pages 21–23) threw up the position (against the wishes of his father) and returned to Britain. He was a good worker, had successfully moderated his drinking, and proved himself to be a model bookkeeper. He also, eventually, began to take an interest in the slaves and their welfare.

In 1789 Macaulay returned to Britain and secured a position in London. His sister Jean had married Thomas Babington of Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, a country gentleman and ardent evangelical, and soon after Macaulay went to stay with them he began to come under their influence. He underwent what he described as a conversion experience and soon came to know Babington's associates, among whom were William Wilberforce and Henry Thornton.

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