nown as Hope End. He had inherited from his maternal grandfather a
large estate in Jamaica, where the families of both his parents had
been established for two or three generations. The abolition of
slavery in the British colonies in 1833 inflicted great financial
embarrassment upon him, as a result of which he was forced to sell
Hope End and to remove his family, first to Sidmouth in Devonshire,
and subsequently to London. Elizabeth Barrett foreshadowed this change
of fortunes in a letter to her friend Mrs. Martin dated Sidmouth, May
27, 1833:

The West Indians are irreparably ruined if the Bill passes. Papa
says that in the case of its passing, nobody in his senses would
think of even attempting the culture of sugar, and that they had
better hang weights to the sides of the island of Jamaica and
sink it at once.[9]

In September of the same year she wrote from Sidmouth to the same
friend as follows:

Of course you know that the late Bill has ruined the West
Indians. That is settled. The consternation here is very great.
Nevertheless I am glad, and always shall be, that the Negroes
are--virtually--free.[10]

It is some years before we find another reference so definite. Miss
Barrett in the meantime became Mrs. Browning and under the inspiration
of love and Italy gave herself anew to her work. The feeling for
liberty was constantly with her, as was to be seen from _Casa Guidi
Windows_ and _Poems before Congress_. About 1855, when she was on a
visit to England, through the work of Daniel D. Home, a notorious
American exponent of spiritualism, Mrs. Browning became interested in
the current fad, and gave to it vastly more serious attention than
most other initiates. Browning himself, while patient, was intolerably
irritated with those whom he regarded as imposing on his wife's
credulity, and delivered himself on the subject in _Mr. Sludge, 'the
Medium_.' Spiritualism, however, was a topic of never-failing interest
between Mrs. Browning and her American friend, Harriet Beecher Stowe,
whom she entertained in Italy. _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ made a profound
impression upon her. In 1853 this book was still in the great flush of
its first success. On April 12, 1853, Mrs. Browning wrote from
Florence to Mrs. Jameson as follows:

Not read Mrs. Stowe's book! _But you must_. Her book is quite a
sign of the times, and has otherwise and intrinsically
considerable power. For