5: Humanitarian campaigns and religion

Question 1

when did the Quakers organise their Committee against the Slave Trade

Answer 1

1783

Question 2

when was the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade founded

Answer 2

1787

Question 3

when did Wilberforce make his first speech in parliament against slavery

Answer 3

1789

Question 4

when were 100 petitions against the slave trade presented to parliament

Answer 4

1788

Question 5

what group was established in 1788

Answer 5

African Association

Question 6

how many petitions were presented to parliament in 1792

Answer 6

519

Question 7

when was the abolition of the slave trade act passed

Answer 7

1807

Question 8

Enlightenment

Answer 8

spread intellectual concerns about human rights into broader society

Question 9

Industrialisation

Answer 9

it was becoming increasingly obvious that the welfare of many was being ignored. Free trade economics removed any support for the poorest and industrialisation itself widened the class gap.

Question 10

first group to address slavery

Answer 10

Quakers - who had opposed the wider issue of slavery since 1657 on the grounds that everybody was equal before God

Question 11

Quakers and pamphlets

Answer 11

known to distribute thousands of copies of pamphlets (e.g. The Case of Our Fellow Creatures, The Oppressed Africans) among MPs, the royal family and general public

Question 12

why were the quakers anti-slavery?

Answer 12

they believed that God was inside every human being and to do harm to another person was to do harm to God Himself.

Question 13

which group are credited with spearheading a moral crusade against slavery?

Answer 13

Quakers

Question 14

although slavery had been abolished in Britain in 1772..

Answer 14

it had become fashionable to have black servants in upper class homes.
London itself was home to 10,000 Africans who had been brought back by ship’s captains or returning plantation owners.

Question 15

what idea did Evangelicals promote

Answer 15

1. the importance of turning away from sin (Slavery was sin in their eyes) in order to reach heaven
2. spreading their message of repenting

Question 16

what were Evangelicals successful at doing?

Answer 16

public speaking and spreading their ideas.
Wilberforce (an evangelical) became the public voice of abolition and regularly spoke in parliament

Question 17

wilberforce as an evangelical

Answer 17

spoke in parliament regularly to spread his message. He introduced bills every year after 1791

Question 18

what were Evangelicals concerned about relating to slavery

Answer 18

morality and the inhumanity of it

Question 19

2 prominent evangelical activists (not wilberforce)

Answer 19

Thomas Clarkson (1786 Cambridge University essay and researcher) and Granville Sharp (campaigned to legally end the slave trade as a civil servant)

Question 20

who was unrivalled as a lobby group?

Answer 20

society for effecting abolition of slave trade (1787)

Question 21

2 aims of society for effecting abolition

Answer 21

1. raise public awareness (conscience)
2. put pressure on British government to act

Question 23

which historian maintains that humanitarian campaigns must have been very strong, if they were able to pass bills at the time of the sugar booms and when the trade was extremely profitable?

Answer 23

Roger Anstey

Question 24

Roger Anstey 1968 - The Atlantic Slave Trade and British Abolition - why is his argument attractive?

Answer 24

(historian who maintains that humanitarian campaigns must have been very strong, if they were able to pass bills at the time of the sugar booms and when the trade was extremely profitable)
because it allows Britain to maintain the notion of innate goodness. Recent historians however have become more sceptical of this thesis and have started to focus on other factors.

Question 25

what have recent historians said about humanitarian campaigns?

Answer 25

they are becoming more and more sceptical, as it is most likely that this argument became popular because it made Britain look good. Instead they’ve started to focus on economic and political changes.

Question 26

when was the Zong Case

Answer 26

1783

Question 27

who was the captain on the ship Zong?

Answer 27

Luke Collingwood

Question 28

when was the Zong voyage? (the case was 2 years later)

Answer 28

1781

Question 29

what happened on the Zong voyage? (and the case that followed)

Answer 29

the captain ordered 133 slaves to be thrown overboard during the last stages of their journey when food supplies were running low. He planned to make an insurance claim for those who drowned, but the insurers refused to pay. The legal case was made about the claim rather than the morality of the slaves, and the ruling said that in certain circumstances it was acceptable to kill slaves and receive compensation, but not in this particular case.

Question 30

how much of Britain’s annual income was dependent on the slave trade?

Answer 30

24%

Question 31

who opposed humanitarian campaigns - give one example

Answer 31

‘West India Lobby’ - a group of sugar planters in the West Indies whose business depended on the trade. The group had close links with parliament; in 1785 it was estimated that 50 MPs were tied to the group with one even becoming the Mayor of London.

Question 32

how long did the humanitarian campaign last

Answer 32

their extensive education campaign lasted for more than 20 years

Question 33

what was the most popular means of promoting the cause?

Answer 33

propaganda which emphasised the extreme nature of the trade and made clear its inhumanity

Question 34

3 examples of humanitarian propaganda

Answer 34

1. thousands of pamphlets with emotive imagery 2. Josiah Wedgwood’s plaque of a slave with the title “Am I not a man and a brother?” 3. The cross section of the slave ship ‘Brookes’

Question 35

in 1792, how many petitions did people sign

Answer 35

519

Question 36

even by 1785, what did most British people retain?

Answer 36

some sense of religious belief - humanitarian campaigns appealed to this and this meant they were able to continue momentum

Question 37

persistence of the Society for Effecting

Answer 37

every year between 1791-9, the MP for Hull (Wilberforce) presented a bill in favour of abolition

Question 38

how was Wilberforce significant in this way

Answer 38

continued efforts to keep the interest alive (even as it became tainted by revolts abroad e.g. Haiti). in 1804, he re-issued his bill and gained the support of William Pitt (and then his replacement William Grenville in 1806). Abolition was passed the following year.

Question 39

manchester

Answer 39

1787 10,000 people signed a petition for abolition population of 50,000

Question 40

why did it appeal to most people

Answer 40

in late 1700s, most people held some form of religious belief