Society for effecting the abolition of the slave trade
Encyclopedia
The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, (or The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade), was a British abolitionist
group, formed on 22 May 1787, when twelve men gathered together at a printing shop in London
, England
.
An informal group of six Quakers pioneered the British abolitionist movement in 1783 when the London Society of Friends'
yearly meeting presented its petition against the slave trade
to parliament, signed by over 300 Quakers. They subsequently decided to form a small, committed, non-denominational group so as to gain greater Anglican and Parliamentary support.
The new, non-denominational committee had nine Quaker
members, who were debarred from standing for Parliament, and three Anglicans
, which strengthened the committee's likelihood of influencing Parliament.
; William Dillwyn; George Harrison; Samuel Hoare Jr
; Joseph Hooper; John Lloyd; Joseph Woods
Sr; James Phillips; and Richard Phillips.
Five of the Quakers had been amongst the informal group of six Quakers who had pioneered the movement in 1783 when the first petition against the slave trade was presented to parliament.
Three Anglicans co-founded the committee, Thomas Clarkson
, Granville Sharp
and Philip Sansom.
published a pamphlet titled Immediate not Gradual Abolition. In this Heyrick urged the immediate emancipation of the slaves. The Anti-Slavery Society
had been founded to promote gradual abolition and though dominated by members with this view, who sought to downplay the challenge, a ginger group
of members formed to campaign for immediate progress. The Female Society for Birmingham had a network of women's anti-slavery groups and Heyrick's pamphlet was publicized here.
Petitions were presented to the House of Commons
, anti-slavery rallies held, and a range of anti-slavery medallions, crockery and bronze figurines were made, notably with the support of the Unitarian
Josiah Wedgwood
whose production of pottery medallions featuring a slave in chains with the simple but effective question: Am I not a man and a brother? was very effective in bringing public attention to abolition. The Wedgwood medallion was the most famous image of a black person in all of 18th-century art. Thomas Clarkson
wrote; "ladies wore them in bracelets, and others had them fitted up in an ornamental manner as pins for their hair. At length the taste for wearing them became general, and thus fashion, which usually confines itself to worthless things, was seen for once in the honourable office of promoting the cause of justice, humanity and freedom".
By informing the public, the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade gained many members. Public interest was generated immediately after the Committee formed, in 1787, by Thomas Clarkson
's tour of the great ports and cities of England. Very shortly the public mood was further aroused by the work of the African Olaudah Equiano
, whose autobiography demonstrated both literary skill and an unanswerable case against slavery. In 1789 Clarkson was able to promote the Committee's cause by encouraging the sale of Equiano's first-hand account of the slave trade and slavery abroad, and his visits to British ports linked to the trade.
William Wilberforce
introduced the first Bill to abolish the slave trade in 1791, which was easily defeated by 163 votes to 88. As Wilberforce continued to bring the issue of the slave trade before Parliament, Clarkson and others on the Committee continued to travel, raise funds, lobby, and to write anti-slavery works. This was the beginning of a protracted parliamentary campaign, during which Wilberforce introduced a motion in favour of abolition almost every year.
, who worked closely with Wilberforce, and with his fellow Quaker Committee members.
In 1807 the British Parliament
voted to abolish the slave trade and enforce this through its maritime power. The following year, Freetown
in West Africa, established in 1788, when the Timni chief Nembana sold a strip of land for the use of a free community of ex-slaves from America, was given greater British protection under a separate Act.
Abolition itself followed slowly, as agreements were concluded by the Colonial Office and the various semi-autonomous colonial governments. After further British parliamentary legislation, slaves in all of Britain's colonies emancipated in 1838; although even then, many of the 'replacement' indentured labor schemes had to be challenged then reformed substantially or abolished over time through renewed anti-slavery campaigning, since colonial schemes could be used to thwart emancipation in all but name.
Moreover, slavery continued on a large scale in the United States of America, which had become independent of Britain in 1783, until the South
was defeated in the American Civil War
in 1865.
to support immediate abolition instead of gradual abolition. In 1830 the Anti-Slavery Society finally agreed to support immediate abolition. In Britain
the Slavery Abolition Act was passed in 1833.
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...
group, formed on 22 May 1787, when twelve men gathered together at a printing shop in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Origins
The first statement by Dutch and German Quakers was signed at Germantown, Pennsylvania in 1688. English Quakers had begun to express their official disapproval of the slave trade since 1727 and promote reforms. From the 1750s, a number of Quakers in Britain's American colonies also began to oppose slavery, calling on English Quakers to take action, and encourage their fellow citizens, including Quaker slave owners, to improve conditions for slaves, educate their slaves in Christianity, reading and writing, and gradually emancipate them.An informal group of six Quakers pioneered the British abolitionist movement in 1783 when the London Society of Friends'
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
yearly meeting presented its petition against the slave trade
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the trans-atlantic slave trade, refers to the trade in slaves that took place across the Atlantic ocean from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries...
to parliament, signed by over 300 Quakers. They subsequently decided to form a small, committed, non-denominational group so as to gain greater Anglican and Parliamentary support.
The new, non-denominational committee had nine Quaker
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
members, who were debarred from standing for Parliament, and three Anglicans
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
, which strengthened the committee's likelihood of influencing Parliament.
Membership
Nine of the twelve founding members of the Society for effecting the abolition of the slave trade were Quakers: John BartonJohn Barton (quaker)
John Barton was one of the nine English Quaker members of the "Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade" set up in 1787 by William Wilberforce and two other Anglicans . Their efforts ultimately led to the passing of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, 1807 by British Parliament on 25 March...
; William Dillwyn; George Harrison; Samuel Hoare Jr
Samuel Hoare Jr
Samuel Hoare Jr was a wealthy British Quaker merchant and abolitionist born in Stoke Newington, the north of London. He was one of the twelve founding members of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.-Background:...
; Joseph Hooper; John Lloyd; Joseph Woods
Joseph Woods
Joseph Woods FLS FGS 24 August 1776-1864 was an English Quaker architect, botanist and geologist born in the village of Stoke Newington, a few miles north of the City of London...
Sr; James Phillips; and Richard Phillips.
Five of the Quakers had been amongst the informal group of six Quakers who had pioneered the movement in 1783 when the first petition against the slave trade was presented to parliament.
Three Anglicans co-founded the committee, Thomas Clarkson
Thomas Clarkson
Thomas Clarkson , was an English abolitionist, and a leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire. He helped found The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade and helped achieve passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which ended British trade in slaves...
, Granville Sharp
Granville Sharp
Granville Sharp was one of the first English campaigners for the abolition of the slave trade. He also involved himself in trying to correct other social injustices. Sharp formulated the plan to settle blacks in Sierra Leone, and founded the St. George's Bay Company, a forerunner of the Sierra...
and Philip Sansom.
Women's involvement
Women played a large role in the anti-slavery movement but were not eligible to be represented in the British Parliament and often, in the manner of the times, had to form their own separate societies. Many Women were horrified that women and children were taken away from their families. In 1824, Elizabeth HeyrickElizabeth Heyrick
Elizabeth Heyrick was a British philanthropist and campaigner against the slave trade.-Early life:Born Elizabeth Coltman in Leicester, her father John Coltman had been a manufacturer of worstead cloth and a Unitarian, her mother Elizabeth Cartwright a poet and writer...
published a pamphlet titled Immediate not Gradual Abolition. In this Heyrick urged the immediate emancipation of the slaves. The Anti-Slavery Society
Anti-Slavery Society
The Anti-Slavery Society or A.S.S. was the everyday name of two different British organizations.The first was founded in 1823 and was committed to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. Its official name was the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the...
had been founded to promote gradual abolition and though dominated by members with this view, who sought to downplay the challenge, a ginger group
Ginger group
A ginger group is a formal or informal group within, for example, a political party seeking to inspire the rest with its own enthusiasm and activity....
of members formed to campaign for immediate progress. The Female Society for Birmingham had a network of women's anti-slavery groups and Heyrick's pamphlet was publicized here.
Mission and support
The mission of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was to inform the public of the immoral acts committed in the act of slavery, bring about a new law to abolish the slave trade and enforce this on the high seas, and establish areas in West Africa where Africans could live free of the risk of capture and sale. It pursued these proposals vigorously by writing and publishing anti-slavery books, abolitionist prints, posters and pamphlets, and organizing lecture tours in towns and cities.British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
, anti-slavery rallies held, and a range of anti-slavery medallions, crockery and bronze figurines were made, notably with the support of the Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood was an English potter, founder of the Wedgwood company, credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of pottery. A prominent abolitionist, Wedgwood is remembered for his "Am I Not A Man And A Brother?" anti-slavery medallion. He was a member of the Darwin–Wedgwood family...
whose production of pottery medallions featuring a slave in chains with the simple but effective question: Am I not a man and a brother? was very effective in bringing public attention to abolition. The Wedgwood medallion was the most famous image of a black person in all of 18th-century art. Thomas Clarkson
Thomas Clarkson
Thomas Clarkson , was an English abolitionist, and a leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire. He helped found The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade and helped achieve passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which ended British trade in slaves...
wrote; "ladies wore them in bracelets, and others had them fitted up in an ornamental manner as pins for their hair. At length the taste for wearing them became general, and thus fashion, which usually confines itself to worthless things, was seen for once in the honourable office of promoting the cause of justice, humanity and freedom".
By informing the public, the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade gained many members. Public interest was generated immediately after the Committee formed, in 1787, by Thomas Clarkson
Thomas Clarkson
Thomas Clarkson , was an English abolitionist, and a leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire. He helped found The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade and helped achieve passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which ended British trade in slaves...
's tour of the great ports and cities of England. Very shortly the public mood was further aroused by the work of the African Olaudah Equiano
Olaudah Equiano
Olaudah Equiano also known as Gustavus Vassa, was a prominent African involved in the British movement towards the abolition of the slave trade. His autobiography depicted the horrors of slavery and helped influence British lawmakers to abolish the slave trade through the Slave Trade Act of 1807...
, whose autobiography demonstrated both literary skill and an unanswerable case against slavery. In 1789 Clarkson was able to promote the Committee's cause by encouraging the sale of Equiano's first-hand account of the slave trade and slavery abroad, and his visits to British ports linked to the trade.
William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce was a British politician, a philanthropist and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becoming the independent Member of Parliament for Yorkshire...
introduced the first Bill to abolish the slave trade in 1791, which was easily defeated by 163 votes to 88. As Wilberforce continued to bring the issue of the slave trade before Parliament, Clarkson and others on the Committee continued to travel, raise funds, lobby, and to write anti-slavery works. This was the beginning of a protracted parliamentary campaign, during which Wilberforce introduced a motion in favour of abolition almost every year.
Gradual abolition
Even with all of this support, it took twenty years of work by the Society, and others - including captive and freed Africans, missionaries and evangelical movements in the colonies - to achieve the first stage of legal emancipation in the colonies. Over the course of this period membership of the Committee came to include the Quaker philanthropist William AllenWilliam Allen (Quaker)
William Allen FRS, FLS was an English scientist and philanthropist who opposed slavery and engaged in schemes of social and penal improvement in early nineteenth century England.-Early life:...
, who worked closely with Wilberforce, and with his fellow Quaker Committee members.
In 1807 the British Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
voted to abolish the slave trade and enforce this through its maritime power. The following year, Freetown
Freetown
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country, and had a city proper population of 772,873 at the 2004 census. The city is the economic, financial, and cultural center of...
in West Africa, established in 1788, when the Timni chief Nembana sold a strip of land for the use of a free community of ex-slaves from America, was given greater British protection under a separate Act.
Abolition itself followed slowly, as agreements were concluded by the Colonial Office and the various semi-autonomous colonial governments. After further British parliamentary legislation, slaves in all of Britain's colonies emancipated in 1838; although even then, many of the 'replacement' indentured labor schemes had to be challenged then reformed substantially or abolished over time through renewed anti-slavery campaigning, since colonial schemes could be used to thwart emancipation in all but name.
Moreover, slavery continued on a large scale in the United States of America, which had become independent of Britain in 1783, until the South
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
was defeated in the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
in 1865.
Slavery abolished
In 1827 the Sheffield Female Society was the first to call for immediate emancipation. In 1830 the Female society for Birmingham urged the Anti-Slavery SocietyAnti-Slavery Society
The Anti-Slavery Society or A.S.S. was the everyday name of two different British organizations.The first was founded in 1823 and was committed to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. Its official name was the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the...
to support immediate abolition instead of gradual abolition. In 1830 the Anti-Slavery Society finally agreed to support immediate abolition. In Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
the Slavery Abolition Act was passed in 1833.
Further reading
- Coffey, John. The Abolition of the Slave Trade: Christian Conscience and Political Action
- Hochschild, Adam. Bury the Chains, The British Struggle to Abolish Slavery (Macmillan, 2005)
- Abolition in Britain. A KS3 History Resource of Britain and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
- Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade