abolitionists
Article reprinted from Cross†Way Issue Summer 2007 No. 105
(C)opyright Church Society; material may be used for non-profit purposes provided that the source is acknowledged and the text is not altered.
SLAVERY – THE ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT
By David Meager
In the late sixteenth century, because of labour shortages the British and other Europeans started importing African slaves to the Caribbean to work on sugar plantations. African slaves were favoured because they were more resilient to the local diseases. Africans were captured by other
Africans in raids and then transported to the coast. The slaves were then assembled on the coast by
African rulers and kept in holding pens until sold to European ship captains. Once a ship was full, the trip known as the ‘middle passage’ usually to the Americas or the Caribbean, took a few weeks to several months; death rates ranged from 10-20 per cent. On arrival the slaves were sold at auction with about two-thirds working in sugar plantations. By 1807 three million slaves had been transported to the Americas on British ships and by 1867 between 7 to 10 million Africans had been shipped as slaves to the New World.
Abolitionist movement
Although there had been criticism of slavery since the Enlightenment, the British abolitionist movement can be traced back to the late 18th Century. In 1787, a group of twelve men, mostly
Quakers and Anglicans founded the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. They included the veteran anti-slavery campaigner Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson who devoted his life to the cause. They recruited the MP for Hull, William Wilberforce, to lead the campaign in the House of Commons. Within twenty years of the establishment of this group, the slave trade had been abolished. How did they do it?
Once the British Abolition Committee was established, abolitionism quickly became a mass movement. Petitions, pamphlets, tracts, rallies, posters, letters to MPs etc, were all used
(C)opyright Church Society; material may be used for non-profit purposes provided that the source is acknowledged and the text is not altered.
SLAVERY – THE ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT
By David Meager
In the late sixteenth century, because of labour shortages the British and other Europeans started importing African slaves to the Caribbean to work on sugar plantations. African slaves were favoured because they were more resilient to the local diseases. Africans were captured by other
Africans in raids and then transported to the coast. The slaves were then assembled on the coast by
African rulers and kept in holding pens until sold to European ship captains. Once a ship was full, the trip known as the ‘middle passage’ usually to the Americas or the Caribbean, took a few weeks to several months; death rates ranged from 10-20 per cent. On arrival the slaves were sold at auction with about two-thirds working in sugar plantations. By 1807 three million slaves had been transported to the Americas on British ships and by 1867 between 7 to 10 million Africans had been shipped as slaves to the New World.
Abolitionist movement
Although there had been criticism of slavery since the Enlightenment, the British abolitionist movement can be traced back to the late 18th Century. In 1787, a group of twelve men, mostly
Quakers and Anglicans founded the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. They included the veteran anti-slavery campaigner Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson who devoted his life to the cause. They recruited the MP for Hull, William Wilberforce, to lead the campaign in the House of Commons. Within twenty years of the establishment of this group, the slave trade had been abolished. How did they do it?
Once the British Abolition Committee was established, abolitionism quickly became a mass movement. Petitions, pamphlets, tracts, rallies, posters, letters to MPs etc, were all used