the times | Monday October 5 2020 1GT 5
DIDO BELL WITH ELIZABETH MURRAY IS ON VIEW AT SCONE PALACE, PERTH, SCOTLAND, HOME OF THE EARLS OF MANSFIELD; times
BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES; BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD; ALAMYOlaudah Equiano
and Ottobah Cugoano
Two of the most important abolitionist
books were written by Black
abolitionists, Olaudah Equiano and
Ottobah Cugoano. Cugoano’s book
was called Thoughts and Sentiments on
the Evil of Slavery and Commerce of the
Human Species. It told the story of his
life. He had been born on the Gold
Coast of Africa, but kidnapped by
slave traders at around the age of 13.
He was then enslaved on the island of
Grenada and forced to work on sugar
plantations until he was sold to a new
owner who brought him to England.
After Lord Mansfield’s decision had
freed James Somerset, Cugoano left
slave trade. His first attempts were
defeated in parliament, partly because
a number of MPs were slave owners.
Wilberforce introduced bills for the
abolition of the slave trade every year
between 1794 and 1799, but lost the
vote every time.
In 1805 yet another bill was defeated,
but the political mood had begun to
change. In 1807 Wilberforce, with the
encouragement of the prime minister,
Lord Grenville, introduced another
abolition bill. This time it passed and
became law in 1808. The British slave
trade that had begun in the 1660s
under King Charles II was over.Gradualism
The abolition of the slave trade was an
important victory, but slavery itself
remained legal — hundreds of
thousands of Black people remained
enslaved on the islands of the West
Indies. Yet the abolitionists did not
start to campaign to have them made
free. Almost all of the abolitionists
believed in what they called
“gradualism” — which meant that
slavery had to be ended over many
years. They suggested that the
enslaved people had to be prepared for
freedom by being educated and by
becoming Christians.
Many of the abolitionists now spent
their time supporting the work of
missionaries who were sent to the
West Indies to convert the enslaved
to Christianity.
The abolitionists believed that if the
slave trade was ended the slave owners
would treat the enslaved better. An
act, passed in 1819, required all slaves
to be registered. This made it possible
to create a census, a list of all the
enslaved people. What the slave
census and the investigations by the
abolitionists revealed was that slave
owners had not come to see the
enslaved people as valuable assets that
had to be looked after. Instead
enslaved women and children were
compelled to work harder. More
women were forced to work in the
fields and enslaved people were also
rented out by one slave owner to
another, which meant their families
were broken up. The end of the slave
trade had not made life better for the
enslaved people of the British colonies.journey the owners would receive
compensation. It was normal for
businessmen to insure the cargo of
a ship. It made no difference to the
owners of the Zong that its cargo was
human beings.
During the journey the crew of
the Zong made several navigating
mistakes, and there was a risk that the
ship would run out of drinking water.
Disease broke out among the enslaved
people and the crew.
The crew wanted to make sure that
some of the slaves survived so they
could be sold for a profit. The captain
of the Zong told the crew that the
insurance company would not pay for
the loss of any slaves who died of
disease but, if the sick slaves were
thrown overboard, the insurance
money could be claimed.
So, over three days, the crew threw
133 of the most unwell of the enslaved
people into the ocean, where they
drowned. By the time the Zong arrived
in Jamaica only 208 of the 442
Africans were still alive. When the
Zong’s owners tried to claim insurance
on the people who had been thrown
overboard the insurance company
refused to pay and in 1783 the case
was taken to court.
Olaudah Equiano heard about what
had happened on the Zong and he told
Granville Sharp, who tried to have the
crew members convicted of murder.
When this was unsuccessful Sharp
published an account of the Zong
massacre. People came to understand
that the murder of sick captives on
board slave ships was normal practice.
William Wilberforce led the struggle
to pass the law that would end thehis owner and was baptised in London.
As a free man he learnt to read and
write, and with the help of Olaudah
Equiano wrote his book in which he
described what he called the “misery
and cruelty” of slavery. Copies of
Cugoano’s shocking book were given
to powerful people, including King
George III.
Cugoano’s friend’s book was
published in 1789. The Interesting
Narrative of the Life of Olaudah
Equiano was one of the bestselling
books of the time. Equiano was born
in what is now the country of Nigeria,
but when he was just a boy of 11 he
was captured by African slave traders
who sold him to Europeans.
For 20 years Equiano worked as an
enslaved sailor travelling across the
West Indies, North America and
Central America. He was sold three
times. One of his owners decided to
name him Gustavus Vassa, after a
famous Swedish king. But by the 1780s
Equiano was a free man living in
London, having purchased his own
freedom with money he earned
trading goods. His book made him a
celebrity and he used his fame to bring
crowds to abolitionist meetings.
Equiano and Cugoano formed
the Sons of Africa, a group of
Black Britons who had either been
slaves or who were the children of
enslaved parents. Sadly, the records
of their activities are incomplete and
there is much about them that
remains unknown.
At their huge meetings some
abolitionist speakers showed people
the manacles, shackles, metal
punishment collars and whips used by
the slave traders. They also reminded
the public of a terrible event that had
taken place in 1781.The Zong massacre
That year a British slave ship called
the Zong had set sail from Accra on
the coast of West Africa and headed
to Jamaica in the West Indies,
carrying 442 captives — around
twice the number a ship of that size
was supposed to have on board.
The owners of the Zong were
Liverpool businessmen and they took
out insurance on the lives of the
captives, so if they died during theTomorrow
The war to
end slavery
in America
— and ‘the
scramble
for Africa’
Did you know?
After a man named
David Lisle savagely
beat an enslaved boy
called Jonathan Strong,
Granville Sharp came
to his aid. When Strong
was later kidnapped,
Sharp persuaded the
lord mayor to free him
Did you know?
Lord Mansfield, the
judge who made a
historic decision
about slavery in 1772,
had a mixed-race
grand-niece, called
Dido Elizabeth Belle,
who is pictured here
with her cousin, Lady
Elizabeth Murray