A prosperous grain dealer, Sturge visited the West Indies (1836–37) to learn the effects of the statute of August 28, 1833, that abolished slavery de jure in the British colonies but substituted an easily abused “apprenticeship” system. In 1837 he published his evidence of the continued ill treatment of blacks and testified on the subject before the House of Commons. Full abolition for the British West Indies was enacted on May 23, 1838; afterward, Sturge worked for worldwide abolition through the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. In 1841 he toured the Southern slave states of the United States with the New England poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier (Whittier, John Greenleaf).

For several years from 1842 Sturge devoted himself to securing the extension of suffrage and the repeal of the Corn Laws (Corn Law) (British import duties on grain). Afterward he attended various international peace conferences, and in January 1854 he went to Russia in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the Crimean War.