From 1640 to 1807, Britain dominated the trade in enslaved people, trafficking around 3.1 million African people to British colonies. Only 2.7 million of those survived the ‘middle passage’ between homeland and colony. During the 18th century, anti-slavery sentiment rapidly grew. Subsequently, opposition was formalised in 1787, with the establishment of The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Their twelve founding members included twelve Quakers, responsible for organising the first anti-slave trade Parliament petition in 1783, as well as laundered campaigners Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp.
The Society advocated for an end to Britain’s participation in the international slave trade, rather than the liberation of enslaved people. This was because they believed that the British system of enslavement would naturally die, as a consequence of divestment from trade.
The Society sought to educate and raise public awareness of the abuse suffered by enslaved people through various activities. Such as, the publication and writing of books and pamphlets, and lecture tours promoting them. They also boycotted products produced by slave labour, organised rallies and raised funds.
Shortly after, in 1807, Parliament announced the abolition of the trade or transfer of enslaved people. Their goal achieved; The Society disbanded.
The Fight for Emancipation
1823 saw the organisation of the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions. Motivated to abolish the state of enslavement under British law, this revitalised Anti-Slavery Society consisted of many old, and new, agitators.
Many members grew dissatisfied with the tentative nature of the push for ‘gradual’ emancipation. Most notable was Birmingham-born Elizabeth Heyrick, a founding member of the first women’s anti-slavery society. Heyrick’s pamphlet, ‘Immediate, Not Gradual Abolition’ argued for enslavement as ‘a sin to be immediately forsaken’.
While emancipation was passed in 1834, coercive labour continued under apprenticeship schemes until 1838. Ex-enslavers received £20 million of compensation for the loss of enslaved labour. This sum was paid by taxpayers and was subsequently invested back into various commercial and cultural interests at home. Compensation therefore bolstered the British economy when plantations no longer could. Liberated people and their ancestors have never received reparations.
Visual Language of Abolition
The abolitionist movement has gained recognition as the first social movement with a dedicated visual identity.
The kneeling and shackled enslaved man, pleading ‘Am I Not A Man and Brother?’ was first drafted by Henry Webber for Josiah Wedgwood, as the official seal for The Society. The image was rendered on a number of fashion and homeware commodities, from bracelets to cushions.
The man’s undignified supplication, produced specifically to symbolise and officiate the abolitionist movement, defines the conditions of the Society’s agitation on enslaved people’s behalf. This is, that freedom is not an enslaved person’s intrinsic right, but Britain’s to grant.
Wedgwood’s seal denies the possibility of enslaved people’s self-liberation, and in doing so, bestows all power to the benevolent abolitionist who hears his brother’s plea. The image of a kneeling, enslaved person awaiting British permission, asserts the abolitionist mission as loyal to colonial racial hierarchies.
The same relationship is reiterated within images of emancipation, in which liberated people dance, bask and exclaim at news of their freedom. Chains are replaced with jubilation and gratitude for the ‘gift’ of freedom, which again reiterates the idea that self-determination was never an option.
These images anxiously reject instances of black autonomy that troubled many white Britons. Interracial relations in Britain and self-liberation from enslavement, in the form of escape, suicide and rebellion, were a constant source of concern for both abolitionists and enslavers.
Indeed, the 1831-32 Baptist War in Jamacia and 1784-1801 Haitian Revolution reminded Britons of the danger that violent resistance to enslavement posed to them.
Such images, across all forms, are valuable testaments to the dynamics that informed an important chapter of British history, the legacy of which remains at the forefront of British society today.