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63-578: Thomas Pringle (5 January 1789 – 5 December 1834) was a Scottish writer, poet and abolitionist . Known as the father of South African poetry, he was the first successful English language poet and author to describe South Africa's scenery, native peoples, and living conditions. Born at Douglas(now named Blakelaw ), four miles south of Kelso in Roxburghshire , where he also married his wife, Anju Heyneke and attended Kelso Grammar School and went on to study at Edinburgh University, where he developed

126-696: A black man." In 1781 the Dublin based Universal Free Debating Society challenged its members to consider if "enslaving the Negro race [is] justifiable on principles of humanity of [sic] policy?" Despite the ending of slavery in Great Britain, the West Indian colonies of the British Empire continued to practice it. British banks continued to finance the commodities and shipping industries in

189-462: A fine of £100 for every slave found aboard a British ship. The 1807 act's intention was to entirely outlaw the slave trade within the British Empire , but the lucrative trade continued through smuggling. Sometimes captains at risk of being caught by the Royal Navy would throw slaves into the sea to reduce their fines. Abolitionist Henry Brougham realized that trading would continue, and so as

252-585: A moment the sincerity of Sharpe, Wilberforce, Buxton and their followers. But the moral force they represented would have met with greater resistance had it not been working along lines favorable to English investment and colonial profit. Antislavery sentiment may have grown in the British Isles in the first few years after the Somersett case. In 1774, influenced by the case and by the writings of Quaker abolitionist Anthony Benezet , John Wesley ,

315-517: A nation proud And jealous of the blessing. Spread it then, And let it circulate through ev'ry vein Of all your empire. That where Britain's power Is felt, mankind may feel her mercy too. Cowper was a close friend of John Newton , who had been involved in the slave trade during his naval career. In later life, following his conversion to Christianity, and his ordination in the Church of England, Newton

378-606: A new MP successfully introduced the Slave Trade Felony Act 1811 . This law at last made slave trading a criminal felony throughout the empire, and for British subjects worldwide. This proved far more effective and ended the trade across the Empire, as the Royal Navy ruthlessly pursued slave ships. In 1827, Britain defined participation in the slave trade as piracy and punishable by death. Between 1808 and 1860,

441-577: A sensation, partly arising from libel actions disputing its accuracy, and went into many editions. He also published African Sketches and books of poems, such as Ephemerides . As Secretary to the Anti-Slavery Society he helped steer the organisation towards its eventual success; in 1834, with a widening of the electoral franchise, the Reformed British Parliament passed legislation to bring an end to slavery in

504-515: A talent for writing. Due to an injury in an accident in infancy, he did not follow his father into farming, but after attending Kelso grammar school and later Edinburgh University worked as a clerk and continued writing, soon succeeding to editorships of journals and newspapers, including William Blackwood 's Edinburgh Monthly Magazine . He features as the character Mehibosheth in John Paterson's Mare , James Hogg 's allegorical satire on

567-608: A union of non-conformist churches and many had previously campaigned against the slave trade. In 1831, enslaved man Sam Sharpe led the Christmas Rebellion ( Baptist War ) in Jamaica, an event that catalyzed anti-slavery sentiment. This combination of political pressure and popular uprisings convinced the British government that there was no longer any middle ground between slavery and emancipation. On 28 August 1833,

630-919: The Brookes . After the formation of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787, William Wilberforce led the cause of abolition through the parliamentary campaign. It finally abolished the slave trade in the British Empire with the Slave Trade Act 1807 . He continued to campaign for the abolition of slavery in the British Empire, which he lived to see in the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 . The Atlantic slave trade , also called Triangle trade , encompassed

693-692: The British Empire (the Poor Blacks of London) and the United States. Great Britain had promised freedom to American slaves who left rebel owners to join its cause during the American Revolutionary War. It evacuated thousands of slaves together with its troops and transported 3,000 Black Loyalists to Nova Scotia for resettlement. About a decade later, they were offered a chance to resettle in Freetown and several hundred made

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756-682: The Court of the King's Bench , had to judge whether Somersett's abduction was lawful or not under English Common Law . No legislation had ever been passed to establish slavery in England. The case received national attention and five advocates supported the action on behalf of Somersett. In his judgment of 22 June 1772, Mansfield held, The state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political, but only by positive law, which preserves its force long after

819-588: The London Society of West India Planters and Merchants to represent their views. From its inception in 1780, the organisation played a major role in resisting the abolition of the slave trade and that of slavery itself. The Society brought together three different groups: British sugar merchants, absentee planters and colonial agents. Writing critically of English altruism in abolishing the slave trade, African-American historian W. E. B. Du Bois in 1948 said, The rise of liberal and philanthropic thought in

882-719: The Paisley Magazine . Kennedy left Paisley in 1828, and for a short time afterwards was probably a journalist in Kingston upon Hull , where he married his employer's daughter. In London in 1830 he was writing for a living, and collaborated with Leitch Ritchie . There he met Mary Howitt , in a literary milieu described by Laetitia Elizabeth Landon in Romance and Reality . Kennedy was appointed as secretary to John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham when he went to Canada in 1838 as governor-general . The ailing Durham retired at

945-654: The Royal African Corps was recruited from West African volunteers, and eventually included freed slaves from the Caribbean before it was disbanded in 1819. In 1796, John Gabriel Stedman published the memoirs of his five-year voyage to the Dutch -controlled Surinam in South America as part of a military force sent out to subdue bosnegers , former slaves living in the interior. The book is critical of

1008-408: The Slavery Abolition Act received Royal Assent , paving the way for the abolition of slavery within the British Empire and its colonies. On 1 August 1834, all slaves in the British Empire (except for India) were emancipated, but they were indentured to their former owners in an apprenticeship system that meant gradual abolition: the first set of apprenticeships came to an end on 1 August 1838, while

1071-750: The South African Journal , and South African Commercial Advertiser . However, both papers became suppressed for their free criticisms of the Colonial Government, and his school was closed. Without a livelihood, and with debts, Thomas returned to Britain and settled in London. An anti-slavery article which he had written in South Africa before he left was published in the New Monthly Magazine , and brought him to

1134-624: The 17th and early 18th centuries, English Quakers and a few evangelical religious groups condemned slavery (by then applied mostly to Africans) as un-Christian. A few secular thinkers of the Enlightenment criticised it for violating the rights of man . James Edward Oglethorpe was the first to act on the Enlightenment case against slavery on humanistic grounds. In his " Georgia Experiment " he convinced Parliament to ban slavery in his Province of Georgia from 1735. However, slavery

1197-496: The 1851 Reduction of Lagos deposed "the usurping King of Lagos ". Britain signed anti-slavery treaties with more than 50 African rulers. After the 1807 Act, slaves could still be held, though not sold, within the British Empire. In the 1820s, the abolitionist movement may have revived the campaign against the institution of slavery. In 1823 the first Anti-Slavery Society was founded in Britain. The Society's members consisted of

1260-527: The African continent by such British groups as the African Association (1788) promoted the abolitionists' cause. Such expeditions highlighted the sophistication of African social organisation; before this, Europeans had considered them 'other' and uncivilised. The African Association had close ties with William Wilberforce , who became known as a prominent figure in the campaign for abolition in

1323-591: The Baviaans Valley, and re-interred there. Abolitionism in the United Kingdom The buying and selling of slaves was made illegal across the British Empire in 1807, but owning slaves overseas was permitted until it was outlawed completely in 1833, beginning a process where from 1834 slaves became indentured "apprentices" to their former owners until emancipation was achieved for the majority by 1840 and for remaining exceptions by 1843. In

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1386-400: The British Empire. Africans themselves played a visible role in the abolition movement. In Britain, Olaudah Equiano , whose autobiography was published in nine editions in his lifetime, campaigned tirelessly against the slave trade. Also important were horrific images such as the famous Wedgwood anti-slavery medallion of 1787 and the engraving showing the ghastly layout of the slave ship ,

1449-582: The British dominions – the aim of Pringle's Society. Pringle signed the Society's notice to set aside 1 August 1834 as a religious thanksgiving for the passing of the Act. However, the legislation did not come into effect until August 1838, and Thomas Pringle was unable to witness this moment; he had died from tuberculosis in December 1834 at the age of 45. In his memory, Josiah Conder's Biographical Sketch of

1512-533: The Caribbean) and tobacco and rice (in the American South), which they took back to British ports. The merchants traded in three places with each round-trip. Political influence against the inhumanity of the slave trade grew strongly in the late 18th century. Europeans and Africans worked for abolition of the slave trade and slavery. Well-known abolitionists in Britain included James Ramsay , who had seen

1575-728: The Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade and were the first to present a petition against the slave trade to the British Parliament. As Dissenters , Quakers were not eligible to become British MPs in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Anglican evangelist William Wilberforce led the parliamentary campaign. Clarkson became the group's most prominent researcher, gathering vast amounts of data and gaining first-hand accounts by interviewing sailors and former slaves at British ports such as Bristol , Liverpool and London. Mainly because of Clarkson's efforts, he trailed

1638-667: The Edinburgh publishing scene first published in the Newcastle Magazine in 1825. In 1816 one of Pringle's poems celebrating the countryside near Kelso came to the attention of the novelist Sir Walter Scott, who admired it. A friendship developed between the two and by Scott's influence, whilst facing hard times and unable to earn a living, Pringle secured free passage and a British Government resettlement offer of land in South Africa , to which he emigrated in 1820. This

1701-535: The Late Thomas Pringle (1835) was published, sold bound together with Thomas Pringle's own Narrative of a Residence in South Africa (1834). His remains were interred in Bunhill Fields , where he was commemorated with a memorial stone bearing an elegant inscription by William Kennedy . In 1970, however, his remains were brought to South Africa, to the church near the farm his family owned in

1764-521: The North American colonies and by the 18th century, traders began to import slaves from Africa, India and East Asia (where they were trading) to London and Edinburgh to work as servants. Men who migrated to the North American colonies often took their East Indian slaves or servants with them, as East Indians have been documented in colonial records. David Olusoga wrote of the sea change that had taken place: To fully understand how remarkable

1827-402: The Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard. Britain used its influence to coerce other countries to agree to treaties to end their slave trade and allow the Royal Navy to seize their slave ships . Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade. For example,

1890-711: The UK in 1832, which was £443 million and government spending which was £51.5m. In 1839, the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society was formed. At the time, Britain continued to import cotton and other commodities from the U.S. Deep South , which relied on slavery for cotton production , to fuel the spinning and weaving mills in Manchester and other northern cities. The finished goods furnished Britain's low-wage export manufacturing economy , with surpluses exported to Europe and India. London merchant banks made loans throughout

1953-876: The United Kingdom, in poor health. In 1849 he retired on a pension, first to the neighbourhood of London, and then to Paris, where he was an invalid until his death in 1871. After an early story My Early Days , Kennedy won a reputation in 1827 with Fitful Fancies ,’ a collection of short poems. In 1830 appeared The Arrow and the Rose, and other Poems , his best-known work. There followed The Continental Annual and Romantic Cabinet for 1832 , London, 1831, and The Siege of Antwerp, an historical play , London, 1838. Many of Kennedy's lyrics are in Whistle Binkie . In 1841 Kennedy published, in two volumes, with an autobiographical preface, The Rise, Progress, and Prospects of

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2016-518: The abolition crusade. Moreover, new fields of investment and profit were being opened to Englishmen by the consolidation of the empire in India and by the acquisition of new spheres of influence in China and elsewhere. In Africa, British rule was actually strengthened by the anti-slavery crusade, for new territory was annexed and controlled under the aegis of emancipation. It would not be right to question for

2079-595: The attention of Buxton , Zachary Macaulay and others, which led to his being appointed Secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society . He began working for the Committee of the Anti-Slavery Society in March 1827, and continued for seven years. He offered work to Mary Prince , a former slave, enabling her to write her autobiography describing her experiences under slavery in the West Indies . This book caused

2142-464: The case of Knight v. Wedderburn (1778), Wedderburn said that Knight owed him "perpetual servitude". The Court of Session of Scotland ruled against him, saying that chattel slavery was not recognised under the law of Scotland and slaves could seek court protection to leave a master or avoid being forcibly removed from Scotland to be returned to slavery in the colonies. At this point the plantocracy became concerned, and got organised, setting up

2205-544: The colonies they had earlier established which still relied upon slavery, despite the legal developments in Great Britain. In 1785, the English poet William Cowper wrote, We have no slaves at home.—Then why abroad? And they themselves once ferried o'er the wave That parts us, are emancipate and loos'd. Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free, They touch our country and their shackles fall. That's noble, and bespeaks

2268-543: The common law of slavery in the English-speaking world and it helped launch the movement to abolish slavery. After reading about Somersett's Case, Joseph Knight , an enslaved African who had been purchased by his master John Wedderburn in Jamaica and brought to Scotland, left him. Married and with a child, he filed a freedom suit , on the grounds that he could not be held as a slave in Great Britain . In

2331-604: The country setting up a network of 1,200 local abolition groups. They campaigned through public meetings and the publication of pamphlets and petitions , a petition in 1792 got 400,000 signatures and the petition in 1814 got 1,375,000 signatures. One of the earliest books promoted by Clarkson and the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was the autobiography of the freed slave Olaudah Equiano . The movement had support from such freed slaves, from many denominational groups such as Swedenborgians , Quakers, Baptists , Methodists and others. They reached out for support from

2394-570: The cruelty of the trade at first hand; the Unitarian William Roscoe who courageously campaigned for parliament in the port city of Liverpool for which he was briefly M.P., Granville Sharp , Thomas Clarkson , Josiah Wedgwood , who produced the " Am I Not A Man And A Brother? " medallion for the Committee; and other members of the Clapham Sect of evangelical reformers, as well as Quakers . Quakers made up most of

2457-620: The end of the year, and Kennedy travelled in America, sending to London a municipal report on Canadian institutions, which was printed for parliamentary use. He was for some months in the Republic of Texas , and returning to England at the end of 1839 became an advocate for its interests. He criticised Daniel O'Connell 's suggestion that the independent Texas should be recognised only with the consent of Mexico . In December 1841 he went as British consul to Galveston . In 1847 Kennedy returned to

2520-537: The final apprenticeships were scheduled to cease on 1 August 1840, two years later. The apprenticeship system was deeply unpopular with slaves. On 1 August 1834, as the Governor in Port of Spain , Trinidad addressed an audience about the new laws, the mostly elderly, unarmed slaves began chanting: "Pas de six ans. Point de six ans" ("Not six years. No six years"), drowning out his voice. Peaceful protests continued until

2583-489: The government passed a resolution to abolish apprenticeship and the slaves gained de facto freedom. Full emancipation for all slaves was legally granted on 1 August 1838, ahead of schedule, making Trinidad the first British slave society to fully end slavery. The government set aside £20 million for compensation of slave owners for their "property" across the Empire, but it did not offer former slaves compensation or reparations (though that has never happened anywhere). This

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2646-457: The judgement was generally taken at the time to have determined that slavery did not exist under English common law and was thus prohibited in England. By 1774, between 10,000 and 15,000 slaves gained freedom in England. The decision did not apply to British overseas territories; e.g. the American colonies had established slavery by positive laws . Somersett's case became a significant part of

2709-610: The latter part of the eighteenth century accounts, of course, for no little of the growth of opposition to slavery and the slave trade; but it accounts for only a part of it. Other and dominant factors were the diminishing returns of the African slave trade itself, the bankruptcy of the West Indian sugar economy through the Haitian revolution , the interference of Napoleon and the competition of Spain. Without this pressure of economic forces, Parliament would not have yielded so easily to

2772-590: The leader of the Methodist tendency in the Church of England , published Thoughts Upon Slavery , in which he passionately criticised the practice. In his 1776 A Dissertation on the Duty of Mercy and Sin of Cruelty to Brute Animals , the clergyman Humphry Primatt wrote, "the white man (notwithstanding the barbarity of custom and prejudice), can have no right, by virtue of his colour , to enslave and tyrannise over

2835-544: The lifetime of the movement, in many ways leading the campaign. On 17 June 1783, Sir Cecil Wray (one of the Members of Parliament for Westminster ) presented the Quaker petition to parliament. Also in 1783, Beilby Porteus , Bishop of Chester , issued a call to the Church of England to cease its involvement in the slave trade and to formulate a policy to improve the conditions of Afro-Caribbean slaves . The exploration of

2898-428: The monarch. In Cartwright's Case of 1569 regarding the punishment of a slave from Russia, the court ruled that English law could not recognise slavery, as it was never established officially. This ruling was overshadowed by later developments. It was upheld in 1700 by Lord Chief Justice Sir John Holt when he ruled that "As soon as a man sets foot on English ground he is free". English colonists imported slaves to

2961-476: The move. Freetown was the first settlement of the colony of Sierra Leone , which was protected under a British Act of Parliament in 1807–08. British influence in West Africa grew through a series of negotiations with local chieftains to end trading in slaves. These included agreements to permit British navy ships to intercept chieftains' ships to ensure their merchants were not carrying slaves. Also from 1800

3024-467: The new industrial workers of the cities in the Midlands and north of England. Even women and children, previously un-politicised groups, became involved in the campaign especially the successful sugar boycott. At this time, women often had to hold separate meetings as there were social rules against their appearing in public meetings. They could not vote, nor could the majority of the men in Britain at

3087-437: The reasons, occasions, and time itself from whence it was created, is erased from memory. It is so odious, that nothing can be suffered to support it, but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from a decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or approved by the law of England; and therefore the black must be discharged. Although the legal implications of the judgement are unclear when analysed by lawyers,

3150-508: The rise of British abolitionism was, both as a political movement and as a popular sentiment, it is important to remember how few voices were raised against slavery in Britain until the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Some of the first freedom suits , court cases in Britain to challenge the legality of slavery, took place in Scotland in 1755 and 1769. The cases were Montgomery v. Sheddan (1755) and Spens v. Dalrymple (1769). Each of

3213-661: The slaves had been baptised in Scotland and challenged the legality of slavery. They set the precedent of legal procedure in British courts that would later lead to success for the plaintiffs. In these cases, deaths of the plaintiff and defendant, respectively, brought an end to the action before a court decision could be rendered. African slaves were not bought or sold in London but were brought by masters from other places. Together with people from other nations, especially non-Christian ones, Africans were considered foreigners and thus ineligible to be English subjects; England had no naturalisation procedure. The African slaves' legal status

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3276-435: The supply chain to planters, factors, warehousers, carters, shippers, spinners, weavers, and exporters. The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society campaigned to outlaw slavery in other countries, and pressured the British government to do more to enforce the suppression of the slave trade, by declaring slave traders to be pirates and pursuing them as such. The Society is in operation today as Anti-Slavery International ,

3339-466: The time. In 1792, after multiple petitions had been presented, the House of Commons voted in favour of the gradual abolition of the slave trade, a decision subsequently reversed by the House of Lords, which wanted to hear its own evidence for and against the trade. The abolitionists negotiated with chieftains in West Africa to purchase land to establish ' Freetown ' – a settlement for former slaves of

3402-456: The trafficking in slaves by British merchants who exported manufactured goods from ports such as Bristol and Liverpool, sold or exchanged these for slaves in West Africa (where the African chieftain hierarchy was tied to slavery), and shipped the slaves to British colonies and other Caribbean countries or the American colonies . There traders sold or exchanged the slaves for rum and sugar (in

3465-432: The treatment of slaves and contains many images by William Blake and Francesco Bartolozzi depicting the cruel treatment of runaway slaves. It was an example of what became a large body of abolitionist literature. The Slave Trade Act was passed by the British Parliament on 25 March 1807, making the slave trade illegal throughout the British Empire. It was partly enforced by the West Africa Squadron . The Act imposed

3528-463: The world's oldest international human rights organisation, with its headquarters in London. On 20 December 1841, the first multilateral treaty for the suppression of the slave trade, the Treaty for the Suppression of the African Slave Trade , was signed in London by the representatives of Austria , Britain , France , Prussia , and Russia . There was a treaty between Britain and the United States of America in 1862. The Slave Trade Department

3591-407: Was a Scottish poet, journalist and writer, known also as a diplomat. Kennedy was born on 26 December 1799, near Dublin , where his father, an Ayrshire man, worked as a manufacturer. He was a student at the Belfast Academical Institution in 1819, and then studied at George Lawson 's seminary for dissenting students at Selkirk . Subsequently he was in Paisley , assisting William Motherwell on

3654-472: Was a scheme to populate the eastern frontier of the Cape with English-speaking settlers and provide a buffer against the Africans. He headed a party whose farms were granted in the Baviaans River Valley miles away from the bulk of the 5,000 other settlers who were granted land in the area of Grahamstown. Being lame, he himself took to literary work in Cape Town rather than farming, opened a school with fellow Scotsman John Fairbairn , and conducted two newspapers,

3717-514: Was an active abolitionist. He described slavery as a "stain on our National character." One important contribution by Newton to the abolition of slavery was his influence on William Wilberforce. Newton convinced Wilberforce that he would achieve more by remaining in Parliament than by becoming a priest in the Church of England. In 1783, an anti-slavery movement began in Britain. That year a group of Quakers founded their first abolitionist organisation. The Quakers continued to be influential throughout

3780-425: Was because abolitionists had not planned for much more than the long-awaited reform of the law, and felt that freedom along with the option of returning to Africa to live in Freetown , or the nearby state of Liberia , was infinitely preferable to continued chattel slavery. In context, the £20 million voted by Parliament to compensate slave owners under the 1833 Act can be compared with the Gross Domestic Product of

3843-431: Was established in 1841, and was headed by the first superintendent, James Bandinel . It came to inherit its own staffing budget in 1841, and in 1854 it was finally recognised as a branch of the Foreign Office . Arguably, its alignment with the Foreign Office was "a tacit of acknowledgement that suppression was a gradual process, but revolution was imminent". William Kennedy (poet) William Kennedy (1799–1871)

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3906-424: Was reinstated in 1751. He also encouraged his friends Granville Sharp and Hannah More to pursue the cause vigorously. Soon after his death in 1785, they joined with William Wilberforce and others in forming the Clapham Sect . The slave trade had been banned in England in 1102, by the Church Council of London , convened by Anselm . However, the council had no legislative powers, unless decreed and signed by

3969-436: Was unclear until Somersett's Case in 1772, when the fugitive slave James Somersett forced a decision by the courts. Somersett had escaped and his master, Charles Steuart, had him captured and imprisoned on board a ship, intending to ship him to Jamaica to be resold into slavery. While in London, Somersett had been baptised and three godparents issued a writ of habeas corpus . As a result, Lord Mansfield , Chief Justice of

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