Coleridge (1772-1834), one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement in England, wrote the Greek verses while he was studying at the University of Cambridge and they are the only known draft of the work. He wrote the poem 15 years before the slave trade was abolished by Parliament.
The poem, a Greek Sapphic ode in 24 quatrains, titled ‘Sors misera servorum in insulis Indiae occidentalis’ (Ode on The West-Indian Slave Trade), discusses the evils of slavery and laments the fate of slaves on the Middle Passage transportation route. It won Coleridge the Browne Medal for Classical composition at the University of Cambridge.
