Abolitionist Movement

B

The Quakers

The first whites to denounce slavery in Europe and the European colonies were members of the Society of Friends—commonly known as Quakers. Unlike the prevailing idea of the time that blacks were inferior to whites, Quakers believed that all people, regardless of race, had a divine spark inside them and were equal in the eyes of God. These beliefs led them in the mid-18th century to take steps against slavery in Great Britain and the British colonies in North America. The first goal of the Quaker abolitionists was to end slave trading among fellow Quakers because the barbarity of the buying and selling of slaves was more obvious than that of the institution of slavery as a whole. It was also generally assumed that if the slave trade was abolished slavery itself would soon cease to exist. After slave trading among Friends had been stopped, during the 1760s Quaker congregations began expelling slaveholders. Under the influence of Quakers in the American colonies, British Quakers established Britain’s first antislavery society, the London Committee to Abolish the Slave Trade, in 1783.

C

Revolutionary Ideas

In the late 18th century an age of revolution began to bring ideas about equal rights to the forefront, ideas that became a powerful force against slavery in the Atlantic world. In the past, servitude and slavery had been taken for granted as part of a class system where the rich dominated the poor and those of the lower classes were prevented from social advancement. But the Industrial Revolution, which brought increased economic opportunity and power to the lower and middle classes, began to undermine this system. Also, an 18th-century European intellectual movement known as the Age of Enlightenment asserted that all human beings had natural rights. The American Revolution (1775-1783) and the French Revolution (1789-1799), widely seen as revolutions by citizens against oppressive rulers, transformed this Enlightenment assertion into a call for universal liberty and freedom.

The successful slave revolt that began in the French colony of Saint-Domingue in 1791 was part of this revolutionary age. Led by François Dominique Toussaint Louverture, black rebels overthrew the colonial government, ended slavery in the colony, and in 1804 established the republic of Haiti, the first independent black republic in the world (see Haitian Slave Revolt). The revolt frightened slaveholders everywhere, inspired other slaves and free blacks to action, and convinced religiously motivated whites that only peaceful emancipation could prevent more bloodshed.

IV

Abolitionism in Europe and the European Colonies

A

Eighteenth Century

In Europe, Great Britain had the strongest abolitionist movement. The major turning point in its development came in 1787 when Evangelical Christians (see Evangelicalism) joined Quakers in establishing the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Led by William Wilberforce, an Evangelical member of the British Parliament, and Thomas Clarkson, a Quaker skilled in mass organization, the society initiated petition drives, mass propaganda efforts, and lobbying in an attempt to end British involvement in slave trafficking. Although opposed by English merchants, West Indian planters, and King George III—who equated abolitionism with political radicalism—the society nevertheless managed to achieve its goal. In 1807 the British Parliament abolished the slave trade and the British, through diplomacy and the creation of a naval squadron to patrol the West African coast, began forcing other European nations to give up the trade as well.

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Abolitionism fared less well in continental Europe in the 18th century. Antislavery societies in continental Europe were narrow, ineffective, elitist organizations. In France, Jacques Pierre Brissot, a supporter of the French Revolution, established the Société des Amis des Noirs (Society of the Friends of Blacks) in 1788, but this group failed in its effort against the slave trade. Despite its complete lack of success, the French antislavery effort was the strongest in continental Europe.

B

Nineteenth Century

During the 19th century British abolitionism became more radical. Wilberforce, Clarkson, and their associates had assumed that ending the slave trade would lead directly to general emancipation (freeing of all slaves). When it became clear that this would not happen, Clarkson joined with Thomas Fowell Buxton in 1823 to form the British Anti-Slavery Society, which at first advocated a gradual abolition of slavery. However, when West Indian planters refused to make concessions, the abolitionists hardened their stance, and by the late 1820s abolitionists were demanding immediate slave emancipation. The great pressure they exerted, combined with continuing slave unrest, led Parliament to pass the Emancipation Act in 1833. This enacted gradual, compensated emancipation, which meant that slaves were freed but were forced to work for their former masters for a period to compensate them for monetary loss. By 1838 all slaves in the British Empire were free. Thereafter, British abolitionism fragmented into efforts against the illegal slave trade, slavery in Africa, and slavery in the United States.

During the 19th century abolitionist societies in other European countries were far less significant than abolitionist societies in Britain. British abolitionists influenced The Netherlands and especially France, where they inspired the creation of Société Française pour l'Abolition de l'Esclavage (French Society for the Abolition of Slavery) in 1834. This tiny organization had some success in lobbying the French government. However, it was the overthrow of the French monarchy and the establishment of a republic in February 1848, followed three months later by a major slave revolt in the French colony of Martinique in the Caribbean, that led to the emancipation of all slaves within the French empire in 1848.

In a similar manner, a domestic revolution and colonial unrest led Spain to abolish slavery in its colonies of Puerto Rico and Cuba, in 1873 and 1886 respectively. Earlier, negotiations between government officials and planters had produced emancipation in the Swedish (1847), Danish (1848), and Dutch (1863) colonies in the West Indies.

V

Abolitionism in the United States: Early Movements

Abolitionism in the British colonies in North America developed within the broader Atlantic antislavery movement. But, unlike the case in Europe, slavery was a domestic institution in the United States and was primarily under local (state) control. In addition, slaveholders often dominated the country’s national government.

As elsewhere, black slaves in colonial America encouraged abolitionism by seeking to free themselves. Although maroon settlements like those in the Caribbean existed in colonial America, they were much smaller and less widespread. Slave rebellions, however, were frequent. A major uprising took place in New York City in 1712, when black and Native American slaves killed nine whites and wounded seven more. In 1739 a much larger rebellion took place near Charleston, South Carolina. About one hundred slaves marched along the Stono River, destroying plantations and killing a few whites. Slaveholders with the aid of Native Americans put down the rebellion, killing 44 of the rebels.

American Quakers, like their British counterparts, responded to these uprisings by advocating gradual abolition. By the 1740s Quaker abolitionists John Woolman and Anthony Benezet were urging other Quakers to cease their involvement in the slave trade and to break all connections with slavery. It was not until the American Revolution began in 1775, however, that abolitionism spread beyond the Society of Friends.

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