WHII.8

 media type="custom" key="29537911" align="right" = Describe the rise and significance of antislavery sentiment in Britain, including the abolition of the slave trade by the British Parliament in 1807, the abolition of slavery within the British Empire in 1833, and the role of various antislavery societies. =



Topics on the Page

 * Parliament's Abolition of the Slave Trade **
 * ** William Wilberforce and Hannah More **
 * Abolition of Slavery in the British Empire **
 * **Thomas Clarkson**
 * **Elizabeth Heyrick**
 * **Mary Prince**
 * **Olaudah Equiano**
 * Slavery in the 20th and 21st Centuries **
 * **The 1926 Slavery Convention**
 * **The Universal Declaration of Human Rights**

**Abolition of the slave trade by the British Parliament in 1807**
The trans-Atlantic slave trade, demonstrates Great Britain to be the leader in trafficking, coming in at 34.2% of the world's trade in comparison with the United States' 2.9%.

Here is an interactive [|timeline] a of the slave trade.


 * Who Banned Slavery When? Dates from 1444 to 1948**


 * The slave rebellion on Santo Domingo ** in August 1791 profoundly weakened the Caribbean colonial system.
 * See Historical Biography page on Toussaint L'Overture and the Haitian Revolution

The abolition of slavery in England and the British Empire was the result of decades of political opposition by abolitionists and antislavery advocates as well as direct resistance by slaves themselves.
 * Who in Britain benefited and profited from the slave trade?
 * Click [|here] for a look at how ingrained the slave trade was in Britain before the abolition in 1807.

The slave trade had a[| profound impact] on the rise of the port city of Liverpool. Historians have claimed that between 1/3 and 1/2 of all shipping activity in the port city between 1750 and 1807 was a result of the slave trade.

An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade (1807) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed on March 25, 1807. William Wilberforce is one of the names most commonly associated with the anti-slavery movement in Great Britain. Wilberforce was a member of Parliament, who campaigned mostly for social reform. Abolitionist Thomas Clarkson inspired him to become involved in ending slave trade. For 18 years, Wilberforce introduced anti-slavery bills to Parliament. He also helped create pamphlets, books, and organize rallies to promote abolition.
 * The act abolished the slave trade in the British Empire.
 * The people who pushed the act through were a group of Evangelical Protestants whose allies were the Quakers.
 * The Quakers had long viewed slavery as immoral. The anti-slave-trade groups were known as the "saints.”
 * The United States also abolished its African slave trade at the same time.
 * Both laws were finalized in March of 1807, the British law being effective on May 1, 1807, and the American law on January 1, 1808.
 * Go here for the text of the U.S. Act of 1807

In William Wilberforce: The Real Abolitionist?Adam Hochschild argues that the struggle to end the slave trade was a long, complex process that was the work of many different individuals and societies and not the work of one man.

Here is a [|link] to a page about William Wilberforce and it contains audio excerpts of his speech to the house.

Click [|here] for a look into the writings of Hannah More, who worked closely with William Wilberforce to encourage women to get involved in the abolition cause.

Her most scathing critique of slavery was put forth in her [|well-regarded poem entitled "Slavery."]

Click [|here] for an article on how British Women played a vital role in the abolition of slavery despite not yet having obtained their right to vote.

Here is a [|link] to a podcast about the importance of women in the abolition of slavery in Britain.

Many women were very active in movements boycotting the purchase of slave-grown sugar. The West India Sugar Company was the largest importer of slave-grown sugar, boycott groups encouraged purchasing sugar from the East India Sugar Company instead. Here the boycott group inscribed "East India Sugar- Not Made By Slaves" on a sugar bowl.

**The Abolition of Slavery in the British Empire in 1833**

 * [[image:Slave_Auction_Ad.jpg width="280" height="409" align="left" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_slave_trade"]]The Slavery Abolition Act (1833)**: The Parliament of the United Kingdom abolished slavery throughout the British Empire. Britain had outlawed the slave trade with the Slave Trade Act with penalties of £100 per slave. The main points of the Slavery Abolition Act:
 * 1) All slaves under the age of six were to be freed immediately.
 * 2) Slaves over the age of six were to remain as part slave and part free for a further four years. In that time they would have to be paid a wage for the work they did in the quarter of the week when they were "free."
 * 3) The government was to provide £20 million in compensation to the slave-owners who had lost their property.

For more information on the abolition of slavery in the British Empire, see The Anti-Slavery Campaign in Britain.

This site provides excellent primary source documents of British anti-slavery documents.

The Digital Book Index provides eBooks that can be viewed on-line for free on the anti-slavery movement in Great Britain.

**The Role of Various Anti-Slavery Activists and Societies**
Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson founded the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787. Clarkson interviewed over 20,000 sailors involved on the slave trade to get information about how the slaves were treated and the conditions on the ships. He also collected instruments used on the ships including iron handcuffs, leg shackles, and thumb screws. In 1787, he published a pamphlet, //A Summary View of the Slave Trade and of the Probable Consequences of its Abolition//.

Click [|here] to read primary source works by Thomas Clarkson.

Here is a short video about [|Thomas Clarkson]

After passion the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 1807, Sharp and Clarkson joined with Thomas Fowell Buxton to form the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery. A new anti-slavery society was formed in 1823. In 1825, many women such as Elizabeth Pease, Anne Knight, Elizabeth Heyrick, and Mary Lloyd began forming women's anti-slavery societies.

Click [|here] for a description of the elaborate "map" of slavery in vol. 1, Chapter XI of Thomas Clarkson's //The History of the Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade by the British Parliament, 2 vols.//

Elizabeth Heyrick was a famous female abolitionist and she is widely known for her pamphlet Immediate Not Gradual Abolition
 * In 1824. In the pamphlet she called for the immediate emancipation of the slaves in the British colonies. The Female Society of Birmingham organized a network of women anti-slavery groups to distribute and discuss Heyrick's pamphlet at their meetings.
 * In 1830, the Female Society of Birmingham submitted a resolution to the National Conference of the Anti-Slavery Society, in which they called for the organization to fight for an immediate instead of gradual end to slavery in the British colonies.
 * The Anti-Slavery Society complied with the request in the resolution and dropped the word "gradual" from its title at the Conference in May 1830.

For more information on the various societies that struggles to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire, see this site.

In John Oldfield's article, "British Anti-Slavery", he explores how the national campaign to abolish slavery evolved to become one of the most successful reform movements of the 19th century.

"The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave" was an account of slavery by a black woman born in Bermuda that helped turned the tide of public opinion. The book was released in 1831 and was printed three times in the first year because it was so popular. The book was published with the help of the Anti-Slavery Society.
 * Linked here is a summary of her story.

[|Listen] to this excerpt from Mary Prince's book.

For more information on women's involvement in anti-slavery movement, see Women's Anti-Slavery Associations. Click here for an interactive map of the abolition of British slavery from BBC.

Click here for a timeline of slavery in the British Empire.

Click here for an ebook version of "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano", the story of slavery through a slave's perspective.

Click here for a lesson plan on Equiano's story, focusing on the Middle Passage.

Abina and the Important Men, Trevor R. Getz and Liz Clarke (Oxford University Press, 2012) is a "graphic history" based on an 1876 court transcript of a West African woman named Abina, who was wrongfully enslaved and took her case to court. Click here for the companion site, which includes additional background information, timelines, powerpoints, and other teaching resources.

**Slavery in the 20th and 21st Centuries**

 * [[image:primary_sources.PNG]]The [|1926 Slavery Convention]** was a turning point in banning global slavery.

Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights banned slavery. The United Nations Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery was to ban slavery worldwide, even child slavery. The UN General Assembly adopted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 8 of this international treaty bans slavery. The treaty came into force in March 1976 after it had been ratified by 35 nations. For more on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, see World History II.29.

Slavery still exists today in the form of slave trafficking. For info on what slave trafficking is and what is being done to stop it click here. For a lesson plan involving modern day slavery click here.

Click here for a link to "The Abolition Project" website. Contains sources, biographies, images, lesson plans, and a timeline.

Click here for a piece called "Measuring Worth" which describes how slaves were valued, sold, and why people owned them.

Click here for the website Understanding Slavery, which includes numerous resources for teaching about slavery

For more information on how British public education and institutions have struggled with teaching slavery and colonialist history, click [|here.]

[1] Slave Trade Act 1807. (2007). In //Wikipedia// [Web]. USA: Retrieved March 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.orgiki/Abolition_of_the_Slave_Trade_Act [2] Atlantic Slave Trade. (2007). In //Wikipedia// [Web]. USA:Retrieved March 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_slave_trade. [3] Slavery Abolition Act 1833. (2007). In //Wikipedia// [Web]. USA: Retrieved March 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_Abolition_Act. [4] British Empire. (2007). In //Wikipedia// [Web]. USA: Retrieved March 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire. [5] Slavery. (2007). In //Wikipedia// [Web]. USA: Retrieved March 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave. [6] Parliament and British Slave Trade [7] British Slave Trade and its Abolition
 * Works Cited:**
 * Slavery. (2007). In //Wikipedia// [Web]. USA: Retrieved March ||


 * Slavery. (2007). In //Wikipedia// [Web]. USA: Retrieved March ||


 * Slavery. (2007). In //Wikipedia// [Web]. USA: Retrieved March ||

New Sources: William Wilberforce: The Real Abolitionist? (2011). Retrieved on 27 February 2011 from BBC's site: @http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/william_wilberforce_article_01.shtml. The Anti-Slavery Campaign in Britain (2010). Retrieved on 27 February 2011 from The Victorian Web's site: @http://www.victorianweb.org/history/antislavery.html. British Anti-Slavery Documents. Retrieved on 27 February 2011 from: @http://www.pdavis.nl/Legislation.htm. The Digital Book Index (2011). Retrieved on 27 February 2011 from the Digital Book Index's site: @http://www.digitalbookindex.com/_search/search010hstenglandantislaverya.asp. Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Retrieved on 27 February 2011 from Spartacus's site: @http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REantislavery.htm. British Anti-Slavery (2011). Retrieved on 27 February 2011 from BBC's site: @http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/antislavery_01.shtml. Women's Anti-Slavery Associations. Retrieved on 27 February 2011 from Spartacus's site: @http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REslaveryW.htm.

New image from Wikimedia Commons.