Parliament Ends Slavery in British Empire

Today’s installment concludes The European Slave Trade Abolished,
our selection from A History of Slavery and Serfdom by John Kells Ingram published in 1895.

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Previously in The European Slave Trade Abolished.

Time: 1833

In January, 1815, Portuguese subjects were prohibited from prosecuting the trade north of the equator and the term after which the traffic should be everywhere unlawful was fixed to end January 21, 1823 but was afterward extended to February, 1830; England paid three hundred thousand pounds as a compensation to the Portuguese. A royal decree was issued on December 10, 1836, forbidding the export of slaves from any Portuguese possession. But this decree was often violated. It was agreed that the Spanish slave-trade should come to an end in 1820, England paying to Spain an indemnification of four hundred thousand pounds. The Dutch trade was closed in 1814; the Swedish had been abolished in 1813. By the Peace of Ghent, December, 1814, the United States and England mutually bound themselves to do all in their power to extinguish the traffic. It was prohibited in several of the South American States immediately on their acquiring independence, as in La Plata, Venezuela, and Chile. In 1831 and 1833 Great Britain entered into an arrangement with France for a mutual right of search within certain seas, to which most of the other powers acceded; and, by the Ashburton Treaty (1842) with the United States, provision was made for the joint maintenance of squadrons on the west coast of Africa. By all these measures the slave-trade, so far as it had been carried on under the flags of Western nations, or for the supply of their colonies, ceased to have a legal existence.

Meantime another and more radical reform had been in preparation and was already in progress, namely, the abolition of slavery itself in the foreign possessions of the several States of Europe. When the English slave-trade had been closed, it was found that the evils of the traffic, as still continued by several other nations, were greatly aggravated. In consequence of the activity of the British cruisers the traders made great efforts to carry as many slaves as possible in every voyage, and practiced atrocities to get rid of the slaves when capture was imminent. It was besides the interest of the cruisers, who shared the price of the captured slave-ship, rather to allow the slaves to be taken on board than to prevent their being shipped at all. Thrice as great a number of negroes as before, it was said, was exported from Africa, and two-thirds of these perished on the high seas.

It was found also that the abolition of the British slave-trade did not lead to an improved treatment of the negroes in the West Indies. The agents who cultivated those islands had different interests from their employers, who were commonly absentees and even the latter too often in their haste to be rich, or under the pressure of distressed circumstances, forgot the lessons of humanity in the thirst for immediate gain. The slaves were overworked now that fresh supplies were stopped, and their numbers rapidly decreased. In 1807 there were in the West Indies eight hundred thousand; in 1830 they were reduced to seven hundred thousand. It became more and more evident that the root of the evil could be reached only by abolishing slavery altogether. At the same time, by the discussions which had for years gone on throughout English society on the subject of the slave-trade, men’s consciences had been awakened to question the lawfulness of the whole system of things out of which that trade had taken its rise.

An appeal was made by Wilberforce in 1821 to Thomas Fowell Buxton to undertake the conduct of this new question in Parliament. An antislavery society was established in 1823, the principal members of which, besides Wilberforce and Buxton, were Zachary Macaulay, Doctor Lushington, and Lord Suffield. Buxton moved on May 5th of the same year that the House should take into consideration the state of slavery in the British colonies. The object he and his associates had then in view was gradual abolition by establishing something like a system of serfdom for existing slaves and passing at the same time a measure emancipating all their children born after a certain day. Canning carried against Buxton and his friends a motion to the effect that the desired ameliorations in the treatment of the slaves should be recommended by the Home Government to the colonial legislatures and enforced only in case of their resistance.

A well-conceived series of measures of reform was accordingly proposed to the colonial authorities. Thereupon a general outcry was raised by the planters at the acquiescence of the Government in the principles of the antislavery party. A vain attempt being made in Demerara to conceal from the knowledge of the slaves the arrival of the order in council, they became impressed with the idea that they had been set free, and accordingly refused to work, and, compulsion being resorted to, offered resistance. Martial law was proclaimed; the disturbances were repressed with great severity. The treatment of the missionary Smith awakened strong feeling in England against the planters.

The question, however, made little progress in Parliament for some years, though Buxton, William Smith, Lushington, Brougham, Mackintosh, Butterworth, and Denman, with the aid of Zachary Macaulay, James Stephen, and others, continued the struggle, only suspending it during a period allowed to the local legislatures for carrying into effect the measures expected from them. In 1828 the free people of color in the colonies were placed on a footing of legal equality with their fellow-citizens. In 1830 the public began to be aroused to a serious prosecution of the main issue. It was becoming plain that the planters would take no steps tending to the future liberation of the slaves and the leaders of the movement determined to urge the entire abolition of slavery at the earliest practicable period. The Government continued to hesitate and to press for mitigations of the existing system. At length, in 1833, the Ministry of Earl Grey took the question in hand and carried the abolition with little difficulty, the measure passing the House of Commons on August 7, 1833 and receiving the royal assent on the 28th of the same month. A sum of twenty million pounds sterling was voted as compensation to the planters. A system of apprenticeship for seven years was established as a transitional preparation for liberty. The slaves were bound to work for their masters during this period for three-fourths of the day and were to be liable to corporal punishment if they did not give the due amount of labor. The master was in return to supply them with food and clothing. All children under six years of age were to be at once free and provision was to be made for their religious and moral instruction. Many thought the postponement of emancipation unwise. Immediate liberation was carried out in Antigua, and the Christmas of 1833 was the first for twenty years during which martial law was not proclaimed in order to preserve the peace.

This ends our series of passages on The European Slave Trade Abolished by John Kells Ingram from his book A History of Slavery and Serfdom published in 1895. This blog features short and lengthy pieces on all aspects of our shared past. Here are selections from the great historians who may be forgotten (and whose work have fallen into public domain) as well as links to the most up-to-date developments in the field of history and of course, original material from yours truly, Jack Le Moine. – A little bit of everything historical is here.

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