The Abolition of Slavery and the Slave Trade

Important Dates:

• 1772:  Mansfield Case (No Slave could be forcibly removed from England)
• 1773: Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects published (England)
• 1775:  American War for Independence begins
• 1781: Nov-Dec: 131 slaves thrown overboard the slave ship Zong to allow the owners to collect insurance
• 1783: American War for Independence ends
• 1786: Wheatley's Poems published in U. S.
• 1789:  French War for Independence begins
• Equiano's Narrative published (England)
• 1791:  Equiano's Narrative published (America)
• 1793:  France abolished slavery in St. Dominique
• 1802:  Slavery reestablished by French under Napoleon
• 1804:  Haitian Independence
• 1807:  Britain, U.S. abolish slave trade
• 1831: Prince's History published
• 1833:  Slavery in British territories "abolished"
• (As of Aug. 1, 1834, for those under six; others become unpaid "Apprentices" for six year period)
• 1838:  July 1:  All British slaves freed
• 1863:  Emancipation Proclamation in U.S.
• 1865:  Thirteenth Amendment to U.S. Constitution ratified, ending slavery

• Explain the "triangular trade" (209).
• What arguments were used by supporters of slavery during this period?
• Explain the negative consequences of associating abolitionism with Jacobinism.
• How were beliefs regarding African primitivism used by abolitionists?
• How did the increasing involvement of women help the movement?

Thomas Clarkson,
"History of the Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade by the British Parliament"

251:

• Explain the rhetorical strategy employed by Clarkson in his description of the middle passage in the final paragraph on this page.

• Why does Clarkson explain the process by which seamen are "recruited" for slave ships?

• Why is he describing his personal reactions to the accounts of slavery he receives?

• Explain:  "Explain how the slaves were "promoted" to dance aboard the slave ships.

• What, according to Clarkson,  will be among the benefits to Africa of the abolition of the slave trade?

• What arguments did opponents of abolition present?

• Why is Clarkson using the (plural) first person point of view?

• Explain: "The knowledge, which their oppressors have of their own crime in having violated the rights of nature, and of the disposition of the injured to seek all opportunities of revenge, produces a fear, which dictates to them the necessity of a system of treatment by which they shall keep up a wide distinction between the two, and by which the noble feelings of the latter shall be kept down, and their spirits broken" (252).
• Explain:  "Nor can such horrible cruelties be discovered so as to be made punishable, while the testimony of any number of the oppressed is invalid against the oppressors" (252).

• Explain:  "Is there not naturally in the familiar sight of the exercise, but more especially in the exercise itself, of uncontroulled power, that which vitiates the internal man?" (253).
• Explain: "Yes; if the unhappy slave is in an unfortunate situation, so is the tyrant who holds him" (253).

• Explain:  "Their treatment, against which, so much clamour had arisen, was adapted to their intellect and feelings" (255).
• Explain the argument for "pity in behalf of the planters" (255).
• Explain:  "The ruin of the islands would be the ruin of themselves and of the country" (204).

• Explain the songs the captives sing.
• What is seasoning? 
• Explain:  "The misery of the oppressed is, in the first place, not contagious like the crime of the oppressor" (258).
• Explain:  "The torments of the oppressor are but temporary; whereas the immortal part of us, when corrupted, may carry its pollutions with it into another world" (258).

• Explain his closing remarks.  Are they at all excessive?  Explain.