The History Book

226

YOU MAY CHOOSE TO LOOK

THE OTHER WAY BUT YOU

CAN NEVER AGAIN SAY

YOU DID NOT KNOW

THE SLAVE TRADE ABOLITION ACT (1807)

T

he passing in 1807 of the

Act Prohibiting Importation

of Slaves in the United

States and the Abolition of the

Slave Trade Act in Britain marked

a radical shift in Western thinking.

Even as late as the 1780s, the trade

in slaves was still regarded as a

“natural” economic activity. Both

the newly created United States,

“conceived in liberty,” and the

European colonies in the Caribbean

depended on slave labor that was

relatively easily obtained in West

Africa. Portuguese-ruled Brazil was

even more dependent on slaves.

Yet Britain in particular found itself

in an uncomfortably anomalous

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Abolitionism

BEFORE

1787 The Society for the

Abolition of the Slave Trade

is founded in London.

1791 Slaves revolt in the

French Caribbean island

of Haiti (St. Domingue).

Independence is successfully

declared in 1804.

AFTER

1823 The Anti-Slavery Society

is founded. It campaigns to

abolish slavery throughout

the British Empire.

1833 Slavery is outlawed

throughout the British Empire.

1848 Slavery is abolished in

Fra nce’s colonies.

1865 The Thirteenth

Amendment outlaws slavery

in the United States.

1888 Brazil abolishes slavery,

the last country in the

Americas to do so.

Radical notions of

freedom in Britain

combine with the religious

belief that slavery is

an abomination.

Britain campaigns

vigorously to persuade

other nations to oppose

the shipping of slaves.

Merchants and plantation

owners resist calls for an

end to slavery.

After several parliamentary defeats, the

Slave Trade Abolition Act is passed

by an overwhelming majority.

Slavery is abolished in

the British Empire in 1833.

It does not finally end in

the US until 1865.

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227

William Wilberforce, portrayed here

by Karl Anton Hickel, was a fervent

Christian and the British politician

who campaigned most vociferously

against the slave trade.

See also: The formation of the Royal African Company 176–79 ■ The signing of the Declaration of Independence 204–07 ■

The storming of the Bastille 208–13 ■ The Siege of Lucknow 242 ■ Russia emancipates the serfs 243 ■ The Gettysburg

Address 244–47 ■ The Second Opium War 254–55

CHANGING SOCIETIES

position. Not only had slavery never

been legal there—a point critically

reinforced in 1772 in what was

called the Somersett case, which

ruled that any slave was free once

on British soil—but Britons prided

themselves on their robust defense

of such fundamental freedoms.

Even so, Britain was also, by

some margin, the West’s leading

slave-trading nation. It was this

contradiction that offended both

religious and Enlightenment

political sensibilities alike.

Global changes

To a number of high-minded and

unusually active campaigners

such as William Wilberforce and

Thomas Clarkson, the abolition of

slavery became an imperative. A

remarkably effective campaign was

launched that, despite entrenched

opposition, rapidly won wide public

and parliamentary support. For

much of the 19th century, the Royal

Navy would be at the forefront of

the campaign to intercept those

still engaged in slave trading.

While Britain took the lead,

the movement had important

supporters elsewhere. The

revolutionary French National

Convention outlawed slavery in

1794 (though this would partially

be overturned by Napoleon in 1802).

Brazil aside, where slavery would

not be banned until 1888, all the

newly independent states that

emerged in Latin America after

1810 likewise outlawed slavery.

It wasn’t until 1833 that slavery

itself, as opposed to the trade, was

made illegal in the British Empire.

Whatever the efforts of a new set of

campaigners, not least Elizabeth

Heyrick, the motive was not entirely

humanitarian. The Haitian slave

revolt, which began in 1791 and led

to the emergence of an independent

Haiti in 1804, had left the West

uncomfortably aware that any such

uprisings might prove difficult to

suppress. A slave revolt in British-

ruled Jamaica in 1831 reinforced

the point: in the longer term,

freeing slaves might prove less

trouble than enslaving them.

The United States, forward-

looking and expansive, remained

the great troubling sore. The more

abolitionists in its industrializing

northern states denounced slavery,

the more its southern states, their

agrarian economies dependent on

slave labor, were determined to

retain it. It would take a four-year

civil war and 670,000 dead to

settle the question. ■

The Haitian Revolt

Few uprisings illustrate the

contradictions of the revolutions

that swept across the late 18th-

century Western world better

than that in Haiti (1791–1804).

This French Caribbean colony,

known as St. Domingue, owed

its enormous prosperity to slave

labor. The revolt, led by a freed

slave, Toussaint L’Ouverture,

was inspired by the American

and French revolutions. Yet

neither country supported it:

The US was concerned it might

inspire similar revolts in its slave

states; France, despite its pledge

to abolish slavery, was wary of

the damage to its trade. Spain,

which ruled the eastern half of

the island, also opposed it, as

did Britain, fearing it would

spread to its own colonies. Even

the South American colonies

seeking independence refused

to back it, fearful of its impact

among their substantial slave

populations. Yet the occasional

combined resources of all these

states were unable to quell the

uprising. This was the only slave

revolt to result in the emergence

of an independent state.

The state of slavery is

repugnant to the principles of

the British constitution and

of the Christian religion.

Thomas Fowell Buxton

British politician (1823)

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