In 1808, Thomas Clarkson published his two-volume text, The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament, after the prolonged campaign to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire. Within this text, Clarkson inserted his own map of the path to abolition, consisting of the efforts by prominent intellectuals, politicians, and religious organizations. This essay will argue that Clarkson’s map neglects the informal abolition activities that coincided with the official abolition campaign both within and outside the map’s timeframe; it in fact ends twenty years before the passage of abolition legislation in 1807. This argument will also examine the role of marginalized groups, including women, blacks, and public opinion, in the non-informal activities involved in the crusade to abolish slavery. Recent scholarship and some primary texts will be utilized to posit that various informal activities are absent from Clarkson’s map and need to be examined for their contributions to the crusade. The map examines the activities and individuals missing from the current timeframe, ending in the year 1787, and so this study will explore the post-1787 activities that should have been included on the map.
A point of conflict on the map is the twenty year gap between 1787 and 1807, arguably a critical period on the eve of abolition. The map fails to display the contributions that finally provoked Parliament to pass legislation to abolish the slave trade. Within this gap, Clarkson additionally neglects the important contributions made by marginalized groups to abolition. Historians have steered away from traditional scholarship of the abolition of the Trade to focus ...
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...de. They served as a device to generate popular sentiment against the slave trade. Drescher argues this media was significant in the first national mobilization. For example, organizers of the Manchester petition advertised for the abolition of the slave trade by submitting their petition to all major newspapers in England to promote the creation of other petitions by readers (Drescher, 49). The Manchester Committee disseminated the info from their petition to others. Advertised to all major English newspapers to promote readers to submit/ organize similar petition (Drescher, 49). Manchester serves as a model petition. The published Manchester petition was critical to the public agitation of the slave trade. Ten days after newspapers first reported of the Manchester petition in the General post, public agitation/ attack of the slave trade (Drescher, 49).
There are many contradictions pertaining to slavery, which lasted for approximately 245 years. In Woody Holton’s “Black Americans in the Revolutionary Era”, Holton points out the multiple instances where one would find discrepancies that lie in the interests of slaveowners, noble figures, and slaves that lived throughout the United States. Holton exemplifies this hostility in forms of documents that further specify and support his claim.
London and the transatlantic slave trade. (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2014, from Port Citites: http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/ConNarrative.103/chapterId/2257/outputFormat/print/London-and-the-transatlantic-slave-trade.html
The controversies surrounding slavery have been established in many societies worldwide for centuries. In past generations, although slavery did exists and was tolerated, it was certainly very questionable,” ethically“. Today, the morality of such an act would not only be unimaginable, but would also be morally wrong. As things change over the course of history we seek to not only explain why things happen, but as well to understand why they do. For this reason, we will look further into how slavery has evolved throughout History in American society, as well as the impacts that it has had.
Blassingame, John. The Slave Community. United States: Oxford University Press, 1972. Print. October 31st 2013.
Examining primary sources can be a useful tool to provide partial insights of past events. Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative is an example of a primary source that provides insights on 18th century New World slavery. His autobiography takes the reader on a journey starting from his village in Africa through the slave trade to the West. He reveals many insights on slavery, but there are also limitations that do not provide the full picture, which is to be expected. Nevertheless, Equiano’s autobiography provides important insights on 18th century New World slavery through his experiences and the experiences of others.
Welling, G. M. (2005, 11 07). From Revolution to Reconstruction . Retrieved 07 07, 2010, from From Revolution to Reconstruction : http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/tj3/writings/slavery.htm
Frederick Douglass used family values, basic human rights, and religion to persuade the northern white audience toward the cause of abolition. He expects his readers will share his “hate [for] the corrupt, slaveholding, woman whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of [southern slaveholders]” (Douglass 71). American slavery does not exist in today due partly to Douglass’s effort to help advance the cause of abolition.
When one thinks of slavery, they may consider chains holding captives, beaten into submission, and forced to work indefinitely for no money. The other thing that often comes to mind? Stereotypical African slaves, shipped to America in the seventeenth century. The kind of slavery that was outlawed by the 18th amendment, nearly a century and a half ago. As author of Modern Slavery: The Secret World of 27 Million People, Kevin Bales, states, the stereotypes surrounding slavery often confuse and blur the reality of slavery. Although slavery surely consists of physical chains, beatings, and forced labor, there is much more depth to the issue, making slavery much more complex today than ever before.
On June 8, 1849 Fredrick Douglass, an African-American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman was asked to speak to a delegation in Boston, Massachusetts, about the prejudice and bias argument of Clay Henry’s plans for gradual emancipation and forcible expatriation of African Americans in Kentucky back to Africa. In this speech, Douglass makes a larger argument that the expatriation of African Americans is quite jaded by political and church leaders prejudice and racist ideals in failing to see slaves as humans, but most importantly fellow American Citizens.
All in all the American Revolution had a contradictory effect on the conceptions of freedom and slavery within American life. Colonial peoples desired universal freedom for all, however they did not understand how this new notion of freedom would apply to African-Americans slaves, in which they perceived as “property”. With the language of freedom changing, along with the uprising of petitions and the mobilization of slaves during the 18th century we began to see a glimpse of abolition, for the first time in American
The American Revolution was a “light at the end of the tunnel” for slaves, or at least some. African Americans played a huge part in the war for both sides. Lord Dunmore, a governor of Virginia, promised freedom to any slave that enlisted into the British army. Colonists’ previously denied enlistment to African American’s because of the response of the South, but hesitantly changed their minds in fear of slaves rebelling against them. The north had become to despise slavery and wanted it gone. On the contrary, the booming cash crops of the south were making huge profits for landowners, making slavery widely popular. After the war, slaves began to petition the government for their freedom using the ideas of the Declaration of Independence,” including the idea of natural rights and the notion that government rested on the consent of the governed.” (Keene 122). The north began to fr...
Eltis, David, Stanley L. Engerman, K. R. Bradley, Paul Cartledge, and Seymour Drescher. The Cambridge World History of Slavery. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2011. Print.
Phillips' book is an attempt to provide an overview of the practice and institutions of slavery in the Americas from its beginnings to the 19th century. Writing in 1918, Phillips hoped to provide an account of slavery based upon historical evidence and modern methods of research, rather than ideological motivations. He drew his evidence from the plantation records and letters of slave owners; contemporary travel accounts; court records and legal documents; newspaper articles; and in some instances, the recordings of slaves themselves, rather than what he viewed as more biased sources such as abolitionist writings. While this approach was not systematic and led him to base many of his conclusions upon subjective evidence and an over reliance upon particular chroniclers of the South, the bulk of his findings are supported by subsequent scholarship.
Williams, Eric. Capitalism and Slavery. Richmond, Virginia: The University of North Carolina Press, 1944. Print.
The ‘Decline Thesis’ is of great importance as it outlines the various factors that could have led to the abolition of slavery. Overall, it also shows that economic factors played a greater role in the abolition process.