Author: Nisbet, Richard
Biography:
NISBET, Richard (fl 1773-99)
Nisbet was a planter and slave-owner on the island of Nevis in the West Indies. He may have studied theology and law. He claimed to have attended Oxford but his name does not appear in Alumni Oxonienses; he also claimed to be a "Barrister at Law." He moved to Pennsylvania, lived for a while near Catawessy on the Susquehanna, then went to Philadelphia where he became clerk to a scrivener. In 1773 he published a defence of the West Indian planters, Slavery Not Forbidden by Scripture, which became part of the international debate about slavery. He suffered from mental illness in his later years. His last publication, two short "numbers" of a proposed poetical weekly entitled "Numbers of Poetry," promises an epic "Catawessiad" but contains only two pages of verse and is mainly devoted to a rambling autobiography. He had by then taken to alternative spellings of his name, Nesbet or Nesbitt. (Oscar Wegelin, Early American Poetry [1930]) HJ