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Slavery

• Slave trade defined as the enforced migration of people across national boundaries over long distances to bondage in a different setting

• Ancient empires of Egypt, Greece and Rome all utilised slave labour

• Within Europe Portugal and Spain had a slave trade by the sixteenth century.

• English began to exploit the possibilities of slave labour after 1580

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Setting the Scene

• England enslaved many millions of Africans between 1562 and the abolition act of 1807– Scale difficult to quantify, but

approximately 24 million Africans were captured and 10 million survived crossing the Middle Passage

– Slave rebellions at sea, and on plantations, were common. Any history of slavery is a history of resistance

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Slavery in England before 1807

Slavers were often run on forced labor• Many sailors on slavers were press-

ganged into becoming crew• Only those who returned had to be

paid--and 20% of the crew on British slavers didn’t complete the triangle

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Triangular Trade

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Numbers of Slave Ships Leaving British Ports

Port 1725 1730 1772 1800

London 87 25 39 20

Bristol 63 39 24 5

Liverpool - 21 92 106

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• Many clergy and mission organizations saw slavery as an ideal opportunity for conversion

• Scripture was often cited to support slavery

• Some saw that their faith obligated them to fight for abolition

The role of the church in slavery was The role of the church in slavery was mixedmixed

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Codrington, the Church of England’s Plantation

Codrington was seen as an opportunity for a model of Christian slavery•Frederic Keppel, the Bishop of Exeter, to

SPG in 1770: 'It is with great satisfaction also that we observe the humane and tender treatment of those Negro Slaves who are become [the Society’s] possession, and we many reasonably hope that our good example will have its proper effect upon other masters'

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The Church’s Slaves

• In a good year, Codrington’s profits reached £220,000

• Following the abolition of slavery in England, the number of slaves on the Condrington plantation increased from 303 in 1807 to 355 in 1823

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'The Negroes in our plantations decrease and new Supplies become necessary continually. Surely this proceeds from some Defect, but of Humanity and even of good policy. But we must take things as they are at present.’

(The Archbishop of Canterbury, 1760)

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Justifications• Economic: need for labour on plantations• Plantations in America produced rice and tobacco. In

British Caribbean mainly produced sugar although some produced coffee

• Cultural: based on blatant racial prejudice against black Africans

• Justified because of its presence in the ancient world and in the scriptures.

• Hobbes and Locke both accepted slavery• But helped that slaves generally resided overseas.

Thus values of freedom and liberty could be upheld on English soil

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Economics of Abolition

• Slavery was a major investment for England– England paid £2 million annually in slave-related

expenses (including bounties) – By the 1790s, over 40% of British exports were to

Africa and the Americas

• Slavery was seen as an essential component of the empire’s financial well-being – By 1800, 80% of England's overseas/colonial

revenue came from slave plantations in the West Indies

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The Abolitionists

• Abolitionists were united in their cause but came from many sectors of society

• Abolitionist groups remained active -and new ones formed-after the political victory in 1807

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Abolition in England, 1780s• 1782 - Ignatius Sancho draws

attention to the reality of slavery– Positions himself as both an ex-slave,

describing 'my miserable black brethren,' and a civilized Englishman, declaiming 'the tears and blood of the poor natives'

• 1783 – Olaudah Equiano, who bought his freedom in 1766, calls national attention to the Zong tragedy– Captain and crew threw 145 slaves

overboard claiming a water shortage, but knowing they would benefit legally and economically from murdering them

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Slave LifeApart from uncertainty about his early years, everything Olaudah Equiano describes in his autobiography The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African can be verified. In 1786 he became involved in the movement to abolish slavery as a prominent member of the 'Sons of Africa', a group of 12 black men who campaigned for abolition. In 1792 he married an Englishwoman, Susanna Cullen, and they had two daughters. Equiano died on 31 March 1797.

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John Pinney’s house, Great George St, Bristol. Pinney earned his fortune from his sugar plantations on the Caribbean island of Nevis from where he returned in 1783.

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Religious opposition to slavery• Wesley attacked slavery as a morally evil institution. • Wesley had travelled to Georgia in the 1730s and

saw slaves on plantations • Published Thoughts upon Slavery (1774) • Quakers played the largest role in the abolition

movement. • Evangelical Anglicans were also firmly committed to

abolition. • Clapham Sect spearheaded the movement in the

country.

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Mansfield judgment• Legal decision made in 1772 by Lord

Chief Justice Mansfield with regard to slavery on English soil.

• African born slave James Somerset had been brought to London by his owner Charles Stewart from Boston.

• 1771 Somerset ran away from his master, was caught and placed in irons on a ship bound for Jamaica.

• Mansfield ruled that English law did not support the keeping of a slave on English soil

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Abolitionist tactics• Petitioning movement. Between 1787 and 1792 petitions

were signed by 1.5 million people in Britain (almost 1/6 of the total population)

• Abolitionists established a free black colony in Sierra Leone

• Outpouring of anti-slavery tracts, hymns, novels, poems and pamphlets.

• Two leading members of the black community in London: Olaudah Equiano and Ottabah Cugoano also publicised the movement.

• Equiano wrote a best-selling autobiography and Cugoano authored Thoughts and Sentiments which described the afflictions of the black people.

• Art forms propagated the message including tokens, medals, engravings and paintings.

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Abolition in England, 1789

• 1789: Wilberforce testifies to Commons about the ‘wretchedness’ and inhumanity of the conditions on the slavers

• 1789: The Clapham Sect design and disseminate a diagram of 482 slaves on the ship Brookes– 700 copies are initially printed and posted– The design shows well under the ship’s maximum

cargo of 600 slaves

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Abolition in England, 1790s

• 1791 – William Wilberforce speaks to Parliament – 500 petitions received by the Commons

• All but 5 demand immediate abolition

– The West India Company budgets £1,600 for pro-slavery newspaper ads, aware the abolitionists are gaining momentum

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Abolition’s Progress in Parliament

• 1800 - Act of Union with Ireland brings 100 Irish MPs into Commons, most of whom are sympathetic to abolition

• 1804-5 - Abolition becomes a patriotic issue, not simply a humanitarian one – William Pitt the Younger summarized the

Abolitionist position by responding that no other nation in Europe had 'plunged so deeply into this guilt'

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Abolition in England, 1806

• 1806 - James Stevens, MP, proposes the Foreign Slave Trade bill to cut off ties with France and allied slaving activity while Britain remains at war with France. Britain's slave trade is reduced by 2/3.

• 1806 - Lord Grenville becomes PM

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1807: The Abolition Act

• 1807 – The Abolition Act passes(Commons: 283 to 16; Lords: 100 to 34)

• It does not aim to challenge the perception of Africans as inferior

• It does not quell England’s exploitative dependence on colonial forced labour and production

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Anti-Slavery or Equality?

• Some opponents of abolitionism were also opponents of slavery– 1823 – Wilberforce responded to accusations

that it would be equally cruel to continue slavery as to abandon newly freed slaves

– Williams - advocated a return to serfdom, linking slaves to property rather than owners

• Some thought that the Empire was too dependent on slavery for abolition– They argued that it would be in the interest of the

common good for slavery to continue

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Abolition in England, 1820s

• 1820s: Elizabeth Heyrick helps to raise the profile of continued slavery in the Americas. She is criticized by the Clapham Sect for her stance on immediate abolition– Inspires the establishment of over 70 anti-

slavery women’s groups– Campaigns for a boycott of slave sugar and its

vendors– Publishes an influential pamphlet, ‘Immediate

Not Gradual Abolition’

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'They are still men, and men should still be free…Though few can reason, all mankind can feel.’

(Hannah More)

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Abolition in England, 1830-34

• 1833 – Act abolishing slavery in the colonies is passed to take effect on 1 August 1834– Slavery is replaced with forced apprenticeships

• Financial compensation offered to owners– The Bishop of Exeter receives £13 000– Owners receive £20 million (2.9 billion in today’s

economy, and half the annual national budget)

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Abolition in England, 1834-39

• 1834 - Forced apprenticeships for former slaves begin

• 1834-1838 – 500,000 petitions sent in protest at the continuation of slavery

• 1838 – Forced apprenticeships for former slaves end

• 1839 - Anti-Slavery International founded to address the continuance of slavery

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Summary• After 1807 slavery was still legal in the British

Colonies. • 1823 of the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual

Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions (known as the Anti-Slavery society) was founded.

• 1833 Emancipation Act was passed • Full freedom was granted in 1838 • Women, played a far more extensive and active role

in these later campaigns forming anti-slavery ladies' associations, taking part in widespread national petitioning, and in writing and campaigning.

• Cultural movement against slavery, consisting of poetry, short stories and powerful campaigning tracts

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Legacies of Slavery

• These include– Racist beliefs and practices– Colonial and post-colonial policies– Poor education about slavery– Continued demand for low-wage

production– Wealth and privilege in the West

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Protest and Positive Action: Then and Now

• ‘Everywhere people are asking me about immediate abolition, and whether that would not be the best…and whether they should not leave off West India sugar.’

• (Thomas Clarkson, Abolitionist, 1824)

• 180 years later, numerous institutions and regions are working towards Fairtrade Status and ethical commercial practices.

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• There approximately 24 million people enslaved throughout the world right now.

• Around 9 million children are enslaved today, as domestic workers, in armed conflict, as prostitutes, in forced recruitment and various other illegal activities

However …

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• Many young women are trafficked from central Europe to work in London as prostitutes, often forced to pay debts of more than £15 000.

• Mende Nazer was trafficked from Sudan as a child to carry out forced domestic work in London. Since her escape in 2000, she has worked as an activist and writer.

• Cecilia Flores won the 2005 Anti-Slavery Award in London for her work in setting up the Visayan Forum for child workers in the Philippines.

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‘you can only be free if I am free.’(Clarence Darrow)

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Homework

• Prominent campaigners like William Wilberforce and Olaudah Equiano are well documented.

• But there are others, without whom so much progress would not have been made.

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/abolitionists_gallery.shtml

• Go to this link, choose one person (or group) – copy the picture if there is one and write a brief summary about what they did