The fight against slaveryComm 412 - 2

Quiz

• Why do we drive on the left?• What are the three layers of guild membership?• What did the youth of London revolt about eating?• What was the nationality of the first coffee house

owner?• Where does the factor keep his goods?• Where did Addison like to go to see the world?

Cockney rhyming slang

• He’s wearing a syrup.• She’s wearing a titfor.• He’s having a butchers.• She’s going up the apples.• He’s eating a Ruby.• She’s on the bone.• He would not Adam it.

English pronunciation: people and places

• Waugh• Mainwaring• Grosvenor• Reading• Borough• Worcestershire

What’s happened to you?

• Hampton Court

The story so far

• The fight for liberty against absolutism was fought in philosophy, politics, history, and manners

• It created the first constitutional monarchy• It created a public sphere where reason, debate and

observation could be used• It created a publishing industry focused on magazines• It established the individual with a real or made up

(see Addison) background• It released some people from the fear of nature

Theory of social movementsLeland Griffin 1952

• A. People have become dissatisfied with some aspect of their environment.

• B. They desire change (social, economic, political, religious, intellectual or otherwise) and, desiring change, they make efforts to alter their environment.

• C. Their efforts result in some degree of success or failure, the desired change is or is not effected and we may say that the historical movement has come to its termination.

Charles Tilly Social Movements

• Sustained, organised public effort• Making collective claims on target authorities• Reliance upon special-purpose associations and

coalitions, public meetings, solemn processions, vigils, rallies, demonstrations, petition drives, statements to and in public media, and pamphleteering

• Participants are united, in numbers and have commitment

Della Porta Social movements

• Dense informal networks• Collective identity and action

Slavery

• Today 12 million to 27 million people are enslaved

• Our focus: the Atlantic slave trade 1440-1870

Labour NumberSugar 5,000,000Coffee 2,000,000Mines 1,000,000Domestic 2,000,000Cotton 500,000Coca 250,000Building 250,000

Source: Thomas, Hugh (1997) The Slave Trade, London, Picador

Arguments for slavery: religion• Genesis 9:25-27: "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves

will he be to his brothers. He also said, 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem and may Canaan be his slave'. “

• "[Slavery] was established by decree of Almighty God...it is sanctioned in the Bible, in both Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation...it has existed in all ages, has been found among the people of the highest civilization, and in nations of the highest proficiency in the arts." Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America

• It makes them into Christians: Prince Henry “saving new souls for God.”

Classicism• Holding of slaves by Greeks and Romans (1 in 3 in early

Empire) in classical times• The right of the victor to take property, including people• Aristotle (384-322BC): “Humanity is divided into two: masters

and slaves.” “The use of domestic animals and slaves is about the same.”

• Cicero (106-43BC) slavery was legitimate for people who could not govern themselves

• St Isidore of Seville (560-636) :”to those unsuitable for liberty, he [God] has mercifully accorded servitude.”

• These are not humans, but property

The trade

• 1440 Portuguese capture slaves in West Africa and brings them to Europe

• 1510 slaves to Hispaniola for the mines• 1562 England starts its slave trade: English

centres: London, Bristol from 1730 and Liverpool 1750s: goods in the triangle of trade

• 1574 1,000 Spanish and 12,000 slaves on Hispaniola

• 1590s Dutch start their slave trade

Arguments for

• Saint Thomas More (1478-1535): “a suitable station in life for any prisoner of war, for criminals and also for hard-working and poverty stricken drudge from another country.”

• Pope Leo X (1475-1521): “not only the Christian religion, but nature itself cried out against a state of slavery [for native Indians, not for Africans].

Economics• How else to get cotton picked, sugar hacked and tobacco

plucked?: not enough indentured workers• Spanish invasion of Caribbean (Spanish Carib = cannibal)

decimates native population• Classic sugar plantation: 750 acres, 120 slaves, 40 oxen, great

house and slave quarters • Native population considered too weak to work: 4 native

Indians = 1 black worker• Portuguese explore West coast of Africa: starts August 1440• Salves sold to Europeans by African chiefs for cloth, brass

pots, pans, ornaments, glass, wine, weapons, candles

• In 15th century West Africa only form of private property: a sign of wealth.

• They are criminals• They were born into slavery• It is too dangerous to liberate them• It is a separate culture in the South of the USA,

a “peculiar institution”

USA

• Five generations of slaves:– Charter generation: originally used as servants– Plantation generation: used for agricultural labour– Revolution generation: the new notion of

universal equality– Migration generation: to the south– Freedom generation: lost• Horton and Horton, 2006

The fight against slavery

• Defending themselves from European raids• Suicide• Slave rebellions: 1st: Hispaniola 1522 on Columbus’s

son’s sugar plantation: most recaptured and punished

• San Domingo 1533,: guerrilla war lasted 10 years• Mid 16th century 7,000 living in the hills• USA: eg: 1708, 1712, 1733, 1737 slave revolts• 1741 Pope pronounces against slavery

• 1555 Fernao de Oliveira (1507-81): “such an evil trade”

• 1557 Domingo de Soto (1494-1560): wrong to keep in slavery a man born free or captured by fraud or violence

• 1615 Brederoo of Amsterdam: “Inhuman custom. Godless rascality. That people are being sold to horselike slavery.”

• Late 17th century is Europe: Puritans and Quakers argue against slavery

• 1696 and 1711 Quaker meetings say should stop the trade, eject slaver owners from the society

• 1765 Blackstone “abhors and will not endure the state of slavery within this nation [England].”

• 1770 first abolition society USA• UK: Granville Sharp defends freedom of slaves 1769• 1779 last sale of slaves in England• 1780 Pennsylvania abolishes slavery for future generations; -

1800 New England states abolish slavery• 1787 Committee for effecting the abolition of the slave trade

formed in London• Wesley preaches against slavery 1788• Manchester petition2/3rds of male population 1788

• Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846): the economic argument against the trade: 1787– Unprofitable– Brutal– Free up capital– Build up a free labour force which would consume

British goods• 1788 Privy Council committee hears evidence

1788 arguments

• Clarkson presents evidence• Arguments for: better that they be slaves

under white rule than be in Africa

Morland The Slave Trade 1788

London

• The docking facilities of the City were at breaking point and there was a lot of pilfering.

• West India merchants proposed new docks east of London in 1793.

• Construction started 1799; finished 1806• High profits and spread London out east

1799

1805 1805

1828

1807

1855

1868

1880

1921

USA compromise

• USA: Article 1 section 9 of new US constitution: slave trade to continue to 1808: better the have the southern states in the new republic than out of it

• “This country is not capable of being cultivated by white men.”

• 1850s: 34% taken in war, 30% kidnapped, 11% sold after judicial process, 7% sold to pay debts, 7% sold by relations or friends

• Slavery split from slave trade: Fox 1806 “Slavery itself, odious as it is, is not nearly so bad a thing as the slave trade.”

• 1792 Denmark abolished the trade• 1792 Wilberforce tries again: long debate, won

with word gradually• 1807 No new ships for the trade• Illegal from May 1 1807: enforced by the Royal

Navy• 1815 as part of European settlement after

Napoleonic Wars slave trade to be abolished through Europe and European ships

• 1834, after 1832 reform act, slavery abolished in British Empire

• Becomes part of British foreign policy• 1861 USA/UK agreement that they could take

any ship trading slaves which they found from any nation: joint courts. Treaty passed in secret session of Congress

• Lincoln’s draft of the emancipation declaration

Overview

• A long strung out movement over many generations: gets into its stride in early 18th century

• Organisation, publication, legislation, petitions, demonstrations

• Get political and economic interests involved• Get details to the public