The Abolition of the Slave Trade

The Abolition of the Slave Trade

Olaudah Equiano (1745 - 1797)

Thomas Clarkson (1760 - 1846)

The Somerset Ruling

Thomas Clarkson was one of the most prominent eighteenth century anti-slavery campaigners. Described by one contemporary as a 'moral steam-engine', he was an Anglican clergyman who had had a passionate interest in the abolition of the slave trade since his time at Cambridge University.

In 1787, he helped form the first Abolitionist Committee. He was a crucial person to the anti-slavery campaign because of his tireless energy, his hatred of injustice and his persuasiveness in getting witnesses on board.

Granville Sharp developed a reputation for taking up in court the cases of fugitive slaves who had been brought to London from the West Indies and wanted their freedom. He won a historic ruling in the James Somerset case of 1771, which forbade owners with black servants in Britain from deporting them back to slavery in the West Indies.

Equiano was one of the most prominent black campaigners in the anti-slavery campaign. He was an ex-slave who, by the 1780s, lived as a free man in London. He is mostly remembered for his 1789 autobiography. It tells of his kidnap in Nigeria, his being sold into slavery, his journey to the West Indies, his life as a slave and his struggle to buy his freedom. Between 1789 and 1794, there were nine editions of the book and it was translated into many languages.

(Source: http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/campaignforabolition/abolitionbackground/biogs/greatcampaigners.html)

Granville Sharp

(Source: http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/campaignforabolition/abolitionbackground/biogs/greatcampaigners.html)

The Abolitionist Movement

(Source: http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/campaignforabolition/abolitionbackground/biogs/greatcampaigners.html)

William Wilberforce (1759 - 1833)

A strong movement emerged in 18th-century Britain to put an end to the buying and selling of human beings.

William Wilberforce was the main figurehead in Parliament for the Abolitionist campaign. He was born in Kingston-upon-Hull into a wealthy family of wool merchants and

The Transatlantic Slave Trade

represented the town as MP. He was recruited by Thomas Clarkson, who recognised that, in order to get Parliament to change the law, the anti-slavery cause needed a brilliant advocate inside Parliament itself.

(Source: http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/campaignforabolition/abolitionbackground/biogs/greatcampaigners.html)

Transatlantic slave trade developed in the colonial era whereby profits from rum and other American and British manufactured goods sold on the west coast of Africa financed the purchase of enslaved Africans. Those slaves were then taken to the Americas, where their sale in turn funded the shipment of sugar, molasses, and other New World raw materials to the point of origin for the manufactured products.

A strong movement emerged in 18th-century Britain to put an end to the buying and selling of human beings. The campaigners faced a long and difficult struggle. These early activists included men such as Thomas Clarkson and George Fox, who argued that the only way to end the suffering of enslaved Africans was to make the slave trade illegal by banning British ships from taking part in the trade.

(Source: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Triangular_trade.aspx)

Sugar plantation owners

Plantation owners in the Americas were dependent upon slaves to ensure high profitability. In Britain, 18th-century laws were designed to support a trade in slaves that was sanctioned by the king and parliament. The Trade and Navigation Acts permitted slave owners to use property law with regard to their slaves 'to recover goods wrongfully detained, lost or damaged' as they would any other property.

(Source: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/rights/slave_free.htm)

The Clapham Sect

Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, 1807

(Source: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/rights/abolition.htm)

John Newton

On 25 March 1807, the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act entered the statute books. Nevertheless, although the Act made it illegal to engage in the slave trade throughout the British colonies, trafficking between the Caribbean islands continued, regardless, until 1811.

Despite opposition from a variety of people with vested interests, the abolitionists and their supporters persisted. In 1806, Lord Grenville made a passionate speech arguing that the trade was 'contrary to the principles of justice, humanity and sound policy'.

The Clapham Sect was a group of evangelical Christians, prominent in England from about 1790 to 1830, who campaigned for the abolition of slavery and promoted missionary work at home and abroad. The group centred on the church of John Venn, rector of Clapham in south London. Its members included William Wilberforce, Henry Thornton, James Stephen, Zachary Macaulay, and others.

(Source: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/rights/abolition.htm)

(Source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/119725/Clapham-Sect)

John Newton was a former slave trader who converted to evangelical Christianity after his miraculous escape from an Atlantic storm in 1748. In his later years, he chose to campaign against the slave trade. He wrote a journal of his life on board a slave ship and also an anti-slavery pamphlet. He is particularly famous for the hymn 'Amazing Grace' which tells the story of his redemption through religion.

(Source: http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/campaignforabolition/abolitionbackground/biogs/greatcampaigners.html)