Many of those involved in sponsoring and promoting British exploration and colonization of Africa were politicans, even if they didn’t act in that official capacity when involving themselves with explorers and expeditions. Of the twelve founding members of the African Association, ten had political experience, ranging from Sir John Sinclair and Lord Rawdon, both active politicians at the time of the Association’s foundation, to Sir Adam Ferguson and Andrew Stuart, Scotsmen who had formerly served on the board of trade.[1] The Association’s first Secretary, Henry Beaufoy, was a distinguished politician who had spoken out against the slave trade in Parliament and was a member of the radical Revolution society.[2]
[1] Robin Hallett, introduction to Records of the African Association: 1788-1831, ed. Robin Hallett (New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd, 1964), 14.
[2] Nicholas Rogers, Crowds, Culture, and Politics in Georgian Britain (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), 182 ; G.M. Ditchfield, “Beaufoy, Henry Hanbury (1750-1795),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1865?docPos=1.