Slavery and anti-slavery: a history and analysis Slavery 200 years on

Slavery and anti-slavery: a history and analysis

Slavery 200 years on

And we have been informed that thou hast forbidden the trading in slaves, both men and women. This, verily, is what God hath enjoined in this wondrous Revelation. God hath, truly, destined a reward for thee, because of this.

Baha’u’llah, to Queen Victoria


To what was He referring?

The unilateral abolition of the slave trade (1807) and slavery (1834) by Britain, and its imposition of abolition on other states

Many Victorians also seem to have seen HMG as the agent of the divine in opposing slavery.

“Great Britain is the main instrument in the Hands of Providence for the accomplishment of this purpose…It is vain for these Arabs to resist the consummation of that which is written in the Book of Fate”Foreign Secretary Palmerston to the British Consul at Zanzibar, 1846


What are the elements of chattel slavery?

• People as property• No political or legal rights• No freedom of movement• No pay• No labour rights, e.g. hours, holidays• No family rights, e.g. marriage• Children are born enslaved• No sexual autonomy• Savage punishments available, even death


Chattel slavery in history

• Until 1800, slavery is everywhere• Greeks, Romans (galleys), Aztecs, Incas, Arabs• Penalty for defeat in warfare• Tributes from a subsidiary tribe• A fruit of piracy, e.g. Sultan of Morocco• Manumission• Source of loyal soldiers – e.g. Janissaries• Voluntary surrender to a Lord, feudal Europe


Why was it accepted?

• Few people were really freeSerfdomFealtyApprenticeship

Maritime law, press gangs Forced marriage

• Equality before the law was non-existent in most countries

• No public opinion• Slavery an incentive to spare captives• Racism and religious prejudice


The role of religion and philosophy

• “A man who is able to belong to another person is by nature a slave” Aristotle, Politics, Ch 5

• “Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, as you obey Christ”, Epistle to the Ephesians 6:5-8

• “He who hath killed a believer by mistake must set free a believing slave”, Qur'an 4:92


The Atlantic slave trade

• Slavery had long existed in West Africa• From 1518 onwards 5+ million people taken from West

Africa to North and South America and the Caribbean, 3 million on British ships

• Britain, France, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Sweden• African slave traders sold slaves to Europeans• The triangular trade – trade goods, people, sugar, cotton,

tobacco, a 3-year voyage• Death rate among slaves at sea 15%• Death rate among British sailors at sea 20% (3 x longer

voyage)• Cruelty and cheating went with the trade


A terrifying experience


Slavery in Brazil, 1700


Previous action on slavery

• 1435 Pope Eugene IV ordered all slaves in the Canaries freed

• 1761 Slavery abolished in mainland Portugal• 1794 Jacobins abolished slavery in French Colonies • 1802 Napoleon I reversed this measure• 1803 Slave trading abolished in Denmark


The English courts

• c1570 An English Court found that a slave became free on arriving in England

• 1765 The Strong Case punishes a master for beating a servant/slave

• 1772 The Somerset Case establishes that slavery is illegal in Britain

• 1787 Foundation of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade


What happened in 1807?

• Eif of 1806 law outlawing trading in slaves

• Britain imposed a unilateral ban on the trade in slaves, seizing ships engaged in it

• All British treaties must involve abolition

• Many rescued slaves were press-ganged into the RN, others delivered to Sierra Leone


What did not happen in 1807?

Slavery was not abolished in British colonies

The slave trade within non-British territories was not abolished

Slavery within West Africa grew rather than diminished

Slave smuggling continued, being now more profitable


British FP and abolition

1808 Slave imports into USA banned (but the South…)1811 Madrid liberated and Spain abolishes slavery1813 Sweden changes sides and abolishes slavery1814 Netherlands liberated and abolishes slave trade1817 Slave trading abolished by France (effective 1826)1819 Portugal abolishes slave trading north of the Equator


What underlay Br. abolition?

• The ideas of the Enlightenment, the Philsophes and the American and French revolutions gradually filtered down into people’s consciousness.

• British tactical freeing of slaves in the American Revolution

• Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, 1787

• Publicity by ex-slaves and ex-slavers• The successful slave rebellion in Haiti, 1791-1804• British dominance of the seas after Camperdown, Cape

St Vincent, The Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar made enforcement possible


Nelson: A pro slaver who unwittingly made the abolitionist blockade possible


What was special about the Society for Effecting the

Abolition? • The world’s first ever-principled NGO• Tactical, focussed on the slave trade rather than slavery• Where possible used the courts• Developed tactics we know today – sugar boycott, logos,

pamphlets, public meetings, empirical research, Parliamentary Enquiry

• Petition by one third of the people of Manchester• Cut across class lines, and even included women!• Appealed to workers and victims of Press Gangs• Appealed to religion, united Quakers, evangelical Anglicans and

radicals• High Tory Wilberforce as Parliamentary spokesman• Literature, art – Austen, Coleridge, Wedgwood, etc.



Who were the key individuals?

• Granville Sharp

• Thomas Clarkson

• Olaudah Equiano

• Ben Franklin

• John Newton

• William Wilberforce


Granville Sharp: Demolished the legal underpinnings of slavery in Britain


Thomas Clarkson: Information gatherer and organiser


Olaudah Equiano: Told the public how slavery feels


Ben Franklin: The transatlantic hero who said that if all were created equal…


John Newton: A saved wretch


William Wilberforce: Abolition’s man about the House


Who were their opponents?

• Owners of West Indian estates• Sugar, tobacco, rum merchants• Shipowners (reflagging as US ships after 1807)• Bristol City Council and MPs• Liverpool City Council and MPs, Tarleton

(Alabama Affair, as late as 1865)• Most royal Dukes• Many sailors (but not all)• Cotton factory owners


The gradual process of abolition

• 1820 Slave trading abolished by Spain (again)• 1820s British permanent treaties with Oman and Gulf

states (“Trucial States”), slave trade abolished • 1834 Slavery abolished in British Colonies

(but slaves “apprenticed” until 1838)• 1839 Society for Effecting etc becomes British and

Foreign Anti-Slavery Society• 1842 Slaves freed in Uruguay• 1843 Slaves freed in Argentina• 1843 Slavery abolished in Swedish Colonies• 1848 Slavery abolished in Fr. and Danish Colonies• 1851 Slave trading abolished by Brazil (Hmm!)


More good news• 1854 Slavery abolished in Peru• 1858 Slavery abolished in Portuguese Colonies

(but slaves apprenticed for 20 years)• 1861 Slavery abolished in Dutch Colonies in

Caribbean• 1862 Serfdom abolished in Russia

(but 55 years of payments)• 1863 Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation• 1865 Slavery abolished in the United States• 1870 Slavery abolished in Cuba• 1888 Slavery abolished in Brazil

(but we’re not there yet!)


“Withdraw your hands from tyranny, for I have pledged Myself not to forgive any

man's injustice ”

Baha’u’llah, The Hidden Words


There are more slaves now than there were in 1807!

Slavery is a fuzzy concept, extending beyond chattel slavery


How many slaves now?

• Legal chattel slavery exists in Niger (3 m) and Mauritania• Domestic slavery exists in most countries, Fillipino maids

with no freedom (in Philippines and in Middle East)• Kidnapped children in cocoa and agriculture (W. Africa)• Debt bondage in bricks, agriculture and carpets in India,

Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal (15-20m)• Forced labour in mining and charcoal in Brazil (1m) • Enslaved prostitutes everywhere (0.5m in Europe)• Child soldiers Congo, Uganda, (was Liberia, S. Leone)• Gangmasters in many states, including USA and Europe


What are the elements of modern slavery?

• People treated as property, law irrelevant• Political or legal rights exist, but ignored• People tricked into dependency, endless debts• Often forced to move outside home area• Isolation, e.g. Morecambe Bay “tragedy”• No pay, or fake pay and lots of charges• No labour rights, e.g. hours, holidays• No family rights, e.g. marriage• No sexual autonomy, rape, forced prostitution, etc.• Psychological or drug oppression• Savage punishments, including death• Slaves disposed of or dumped when sub-optimal


Cheap, convenient and low maintenance


Cheap, convenient and low maintenance


You’re not up to the job, lad


How does it happen?• Penalties lower than drug dealing, profits can be higher!• Dependence fostered – good cop, bad cop• Move people across borders; the crook holds passports,

you can’t speak to locals • Trickery (“work as a nurse or teacher?”), then extreme

violence• Demand for cheap goods• Poor families sell children for goods or send them to “a

better life” • The police as organised crime (e.g. Thailand)• The social elite as collective oppressors• Client immorality and callousness• Corruption undermines government schemes for

emancipation from debt bondage (e.g. India) Slavery 200 years on

“To act like the beasts of the field is unworthy of man”


Sourcing the merchandise


A Baha’i perspective on modern slavery

• Little or no specific reference in publicly available BIC documents

• International mobility without international controls or information

• Love of wealth without love of humanity• Baseness of human motives, e.g. sexual slavery

requires a depraved clientele• A lack of moral fibre in the general public• Sometimes associated with drugs and illiteracy


The Turning Point

• Extending collective security to new problems of the global commons (p11)

• Justice “the indispensable compass in collective decision making” (p12)

• Releasing the power of the individual (p13)• Protecting human rights (p16)• Advancing the status of women (pp 18-20)• “The all-important UDHR” (p16)• Monitoring and exclusion of rogue states (p18)


The violation of human rights in one state must be considered the concern of all, and enforcement mechanisms must provide for a unified response on the part of

the entire international community

Turning Point, p16


A universal dutyLeague of Nations 1926 Convention on the Abolition of Slavery Every member and every human has an absolute duty to prevent

slavery

UDHR Article 3.Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.UDHR Article 4. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave

trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. UNDHR Article 23.Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just

and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.


The world fights back

1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions Similar to Slavery

Added sale of a person into marriage, debt bondage, serfdom, child labour, using and procuring slave labour

2000 UN Trafficking ProtocolOptional protocol on the sale of children, child

prostitution and child pornography

2004 Brazil abolishes slavery (again!). Slaveholders assets may be seized


Progress on trafficking

• Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, eif Feb 2008

• States must provide protection and assistance to trafficked people, including compensation

• In UK, 41 cases led to 95 convictions, yet not one Compensation Order against the oppressor

• Some compensation has been paid by CICB• Compensation would make trafficking less

profitable


The EU gets its act together on trafficking


Without human and state action, new international laws can do

nothing


Anti-slavery International

• 170 years old yesterday!

• Associated organisations in only 20-30 countries


Recent ASI actions

Established 5 schools in NigerSupports Coalition of Immokalee Workers in

persuading McDonalds, Burger King and Subway to investigate their suppliers

Persuaded UNO to appoint a Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Slavery

Liberated 1,658 bonded labourers in South Asia through legal action

Sponsored Mauritanian anti-slavery law Slavery 200 years on

What can individuals do?• Teach the Faith• Teach people about consultation, about human rights and duties• Educate people about slavery• Ask about what you buy – chocolate, jade, diamonds, carpets from

South Asia (Rugmark)• Don’t accept waffle about culture: “All things made new”• Don’t buy on price alone: Read the CSR sections in company

reports, respect good employers & importers, trade unions, co-ops, minimum wages, Fair Trade goods and produce

• Be an upholder and defender of the victim of oppression• Be nosy, and tell the police where you think slavery may exist• Take an interest in Anti-Slavery International


What does the history of slavery teach us?

• Without the law of God, there is no evil to which people will not stoop

• The rule of law is an important issue

• Individual initiative and action are very important. In 20 years a few “eccentrics” changed public opinion completely


Useful sources

• Anti-Slavery International, London• International Labour Office, Geneva• “Slavery, Blight on the 21st Century”, Ed. Zarin

Caldwell (Understanding Global Issues Ltd)• Adam Hochschild, “Bury the Chains” (Macmillan)• Kevin Bales, “Disposable People: New Slavery

in the Global Economy” (Univ. California Press)


“As I looked into her eyes I was aware that she wasn’t alone in her misery; that millions of children and women,

worldwide, endure a similar fate. It’s modern slavery. The rights for far too many remain little more than words on paper. We are all the custodians of human rights and

we must find our own way to do what is required.”

HE Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 1997-2002


Documents

Slavery and anti-slavery: a history and analysis Slavery 200 years on