After the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was founded in 1787, some forty-six years passed before both aims were achieved.
Opponents of Abolition
The abolitionists,Granville Sharp, Thomas Clarkson, Zachary Macaulay and William Wilberforce had to overcome some very fierce opposition. This came, naturally enough, from plantation owners in America and the West Indies who relied on black slaves as a source of cheap labour.
Other opponents considered black people barely human savages and thought that slavery was their natural state. Those with an interest in the Royal Navy believed that the ships involved in the slave trade between Africa and the Americas provided valuable training for British seamen.
What Thomas Clarkson Discovered
This last was a fallacious argument. The benefits of slave ships for training seamen were not nearly as great as was imagined for the slave trade was responsible for the deaths of thousands of seamen. To capture the attention of the British public, the abolitionists set out to prove it.
Thomas Clarkson travelled all over Britain collecting facts and figures. He discovered that between 1764 and 1790, eleven out of every hundred seamen died during slaving voyages. On ships sailing from the two great slaving ports of Bristol and Liverpool, the figure was almost double - 21.5 percent.
Frequently, these deaths were due to ill-treatment or torture by ships' captains and officers. When these facts were made known, the British public and Parliament were horrified. But there were more shocking revelations to come.
Horrors on Board the Slave Ships
Clarkson also gathered details of the conditions endured by slaves on the tight-packed sailing ships. For this purpose, he amassed a gruesome collection of leg irons, manacles, thumb screws and other instruments that were used on board ship to control the slaves.
Meanwhile, William Wilberforce MP was gathering support among his fellow Members of Parliament. He gained the backing of two important MPs, Edmund Burke and Charles Fox, and best of all, the support of William Pitt, who had been Prime Minister since 1783.
Pitt headed an enquiry into the slave trade which included among its evidence the terrible facts unearthed by Clarkson. When the report was published in April 1789, people were appalled.
The French Revolution Interferes
However, three months later, Wilberforce and the abolitionists received the worst possible setback. On July 14, 1789, the French Revolution began. This was an emergency of the greatest proportions, a threat to peace and the foundations of society at the time.
Overnight, the struggle against the revolutionaries became more important than any other topic and the crews of the slaving ships and the ports sited in the slave colonies of the West Indies became vital to the British war effort.
Most serious of all for William Wilberforce and the abolitionist cause was the fact that the threat from France claimed the full attention of his three political supporters, Fox, Burke and Pitt. But although they abruptly deserted Wilberforce to concentrate on the war with France, he soldiered on in Parliament and endured vicious personal insults for his trouble.
New Plantations in the Americas
Yet in these bleak, depressing years, Wilberforce was nearer to success than he imagined. During the fighting against the French, British forces occupied two French territories - Guiana on the north coast of South America and the Caribbean island of Trinidad.
When the British government proposed to import slaves to develop sugar plantations in these territories, planters in the West Indies and the United States became concerned about the competition this would present. To put a stop to it, they decided to support the abolition of the slave trade, even though this was something they had vigorously opposed before.
Abolition at Last
Then, William Pitt, who had resigned as Prime Minister in 1801, returned in 1804 ready to support the abolitionist cause once again. Although there were some delays, the abolition bill was at long last passed in 1807.
Slaving ships were forbidden to sail from ports anywhere in the British empire after May 1, 1807 and no slaves could be landed there after March 1, 1808. To enforce the new law, cruisers of the Royal Navy were sent to blockade the African coast and seize British ships attempting to leave ports there with cargoes of slaves on board.
Naval patrols also seized the slaving ships of other nations and as late as 1867, the Navy maintained patrols to curb any attempt to revive the slave trade.
The Abolition of Slavery
William Wilberforce continued campaigning, this time for the abolition of slavery itself and in 1823, he help to found an anti-slavery society. The bill to abolish slavery became law ten years later, on August 28, 1833. Sadly, though, Wilberforce did not live long enough to see the great day arrive. He had died the previous July 29.
Sources
Walvin, James and Royston, Angel Slavery to Freedom: Britain’s Slave Trade and Abolition (London UK. Pitkin Guides, 2007) ISBN-10: 1841652202/ISBN-13: 978-1841652207
Sherwood, Marika, After Abolition: Britain and the Slave Trade Since 1807 (Library of International Relations)(London UK, I.B. Tauris, 2007) ISBN-10: 1845113659/ISBN-13: 978-1845113650
Brenda Ralph Lewis - My interest in history dates from childhood. I am presently the author of 120 books and hundreds of articles, all on historical ...
