History of Fox Bourne and the Aborigines Protection Society
Henry Richard Fox Bourne was born in 1837 in Jamaica to a magistrate who was a passionate abolitionist against slavery. This influence followed throughout Bourne's life as he became a politically critical author as well writing biographies illustrating expanding merchant trades and growing English authority in colonies through missionary objectives and economic opportunities (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).
After becoming secretary of the Aborigines Protection Society in 1889, a human rights organization overseeing the liberty of the indigenous people in colony controlled areas, Bourne wrote publicly in his journal The Aborigine's Friend, appealing to English citizens to improve the protection of the native tribes. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Bourne was one of the first to publicly denounce the horrid treatment of the native peoples in Congo. His cries for action and advocacy were what led to the ultimate improvement of the treatment of the natives. Fox Bourne, H.R. died shortly after in 1909.
