This study offers invaluable insight into a much-neglected area of historical research on this nineteenth-century political figure. Previous histories on O'Connell have dealt predominantly with his attempts to secure a repeal of the 1800 Act of Union and on his success in achieving Catholic Emancipation in 1829, Kinealy focuses instead on O'Connell's contribution to the anti-slavery movement in the United States. She argues that by using his influences over Irish immigrants in the United States, O'Connell negotiated a position of importance in the international debate over the right to freedom. The anti-slavery movement occupied an important place in O'Connell's wider commitment to humanitarian politics. He was both a member of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and Secretary of the Glasgow Anti-Slavery Society and he developed an international reputation as an influential spokesman on the issue.
