Abolition of slavery 1807

1
Abolition of slavery 1807

• Why?
• Who?
• How?

2
How was slavery abolished?

• Very simple really
• Anti-Slavery society formed in 1787
• Slave trade abolished in 1807, because Britain
  thought it was wicked
• All slaves in British colonies then set free in
  1834
• But was it so simple?

3
6 main arguments for abolition

• The moral case it was wicked
• The economic case slavery was not worth it
• The legal case slavery was illegal
• The religious case slavery was unchristian
• The political case slaves hated slavery
• The revolutionary case slavery would lead to
  more revolts
• You are going to have to sort these into an order
  of
• importancewhich do YOU think was the strongest
• reason for abolition?

4
The moral argument

• Slavery is an evil of the first magnitude. It
  is a most horrible iniquity to traffic with the
  souls of men. Any man who deals with his fellow
  creatures with such wickedness should be held as
  the abomination of all mankind. Those who are
  the procurers and holders of slaves are the
  greatest villains in the world.
• Ottobah Cuguano a black campaigner for
• abolition

5
The economic case

• In 1776 Adam Smith, in his book The Wealth of
  Nations argued that slave labour was inefficient,
  maintaining that a person with no rights had no
  reason to work hard.
• By the 1790s, French sugar was costing 20 less
  than British sugar. London merchants were no
  longer able to make good profits from the sugar
  trade.
• They started to transfer their investments from
  Caribbean plantations to the new cotton mills in
  Lancashire or the Empire in India.

6
The legal case

• By the 1770s there were some 15,000 black people
  in Britain. Most, brought by their owners from
  the West Indies, worked as household servants.
• A number of test cases seemed to show that
  slavery was not legal under British law
• Somerset case 1771-72 a slave, James Somerset,
  had been brought to England and now refused to be
  taken, against his will, back to the colonies.
  The law decided that he could not be forced to
  go.
• Zong case 1781 the slave ship Zong had left
  Africa with 470 slaves and a crew of 17. By the
  time it was nearing Jamaica, most of the slaves
  were ill. The captain knew that he would not be
  able to sell the slaves in such poor condition so
  he ordered the sick slaves to be thrown
  overboard. He claimed that he had to do this to
  save the lives of the others and the crew because
  he was short of water. This allowed him to claim
  on the insurance value of the slaves. In fact,
  the insurers refused to pay and the case went to
  court. The ship owners claimed that the slaves
  were goods and property, not human beings. This
  case caused widespread horror, and helped to get
  the Anti-Slavery campaign going.

7
The religious case

• repugnant to our religion (Barnsley Methodists)
• A system full of wickedness, hateful to God, and
  a curse and disgrace to Britain (Derby)
• A system revolting to the feelings of mankind
  and inconsistent with the counsels of Heaven
  (Hereford Ladies)
• Agitation to abolish the slave trade began in
  Britain in the 1760s. Many of its first members
  were Quakers.
• They received massed support from the Baptists
  and Methodists and, in 1787, persuaded Granville
  Sharp to become the chairman of the Society for
  the Abolition of the Slave Trade.

8
The political case problems in the Caribbean

• There was never a time when the white British
  rulers of their Caribbean islands felt totally
  secure.
• Slavery was never accepted, by the Africans
  particularly, but also by the native born black
  populations.
• There were a number of serious revolts
• 1730-40 First Maroon war, Jamaica
• 1735-36 Revolt in Antigua
• 1760 Tackys revolt in Jamaica
• 1763 Kofis revolt in Guyana
• 1795-96 Second Maroon War in Jamaica
• 1795-97 Fedors rebellion, Grenada

9
The Revolutionary case

• The idea of fighting against oppression was
  encouraged by the ideas and activities of the
  French Revolution.
• The French island of Saint Domingue was the
  richest colony in the world, and the biggest
  slave market in the Americas.
• The French Revolution began in 1789 and, in 1791,
  the French Government declared all people equal.
• The whites in Saint Domingue would not accept
  this, and the slaves rose up in revolt.
• Their leader was Toussaint LOuverture and, in
  1794, the French Government granted all slaves in
  Saint Domingue their freedom.
• The British, and other slave-owning countries in
  the Caribbean were horrified and sent troops to
  crush the rebellion.
• They were easily defeated by Toussaint
  LOuverture.
• In 1798 he became the first ruler of an
  independent black state.

10
Key Individuals

• Granville Sharp
• William Wilberforce
• Josiah Wedgwood
• Thomas Clarkson
• Olandah Equiano
• Lord Mansfield
• One more
• Do your own research on each of these. Who do you
  think made
• the greatest contribution to the abolition
  movement? Or a Jolly
• lesson groups of 4 each group to do poster on
  their character.
• One person sits and explains their poster to
  visitors feed back to
• group 2nd trip for info each student to do
  recording info
• exercise and make judgement

11
Samuel Ally the Manx slave

• "SAMUEL ALLY, an African and Native of St.
  Helena. Died the 28th of May, 1822,
• aged 18 years. Born a slave and exposed in early
  life to the corrupt influence of that
• unhappy state, he became a model of TRUTH and
  PROBITY. This stone is erected
• by a grateful master to the memory of a faithful
  servant.
• Colonel Mark Wilks (1759-1831) was the son of the
  Rev. James Wilks (vicar of Kirk Michael 1752-1771
  and rector of Ballaugh 1771-77). He served with
  the East India Company and was appointed governor
  of St Helena in 1813. He was in post when
  Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled there in 1815, and
  became friends with the former emperor, who was
  impressed by his intelligence and wide knowledge
  and much regretted his replacement in 1816 by the
  quarrelsome Sir Hudson Lowe. (The Duke of
  Wellington is reported to have said that his
  removal was a mistake on the part of the
  Government.) He built Kirby House, to which he
  returned in 1816 on his retirement, bringing with
  him as a servant the former slave Samuel Ally.