British Timeline 1771-1830 Flashcards
1771
‘Factory Age’ begins with the opening of Britain’s first cotton mil
The weaving of cotton cloth had become a major industry by the 1760s, with most of the labour being done by people in their homes. In 1771, inventor Richard Arkwright opened the first cotton mill at Cromford, Derbyshire. The spinning of yarn was carried out by his own patented machine, known as a water frame. This was a significant step towards the automation of labour-intensive industries and heralded the beginning of the ‘Factory Age’ in Britain.
22 June 1772
Slavery is effectively outlawed in England
When the enslaved James Somerset escaped from his owner in London, he was captured and forced on to a ship bound for Jamaica. With the help of abolitionist Granville Sharpe, Somerset’s case was taken to court and Lord William Mansfield, the lord chief justice, ruled that Somerset should be freed. This was widely, and mistakenly, believed to mean that slavery was outlawed in England. Slave owners continued to capture their runaway slaves and take them back to the Caribbean, but the case marked a milestone in the struggle to abolish slavery.
16 December 1773
‘Boston Tea Party’ heightens tensions in North American colon
In 1770, taxes on imports to the American Colonies had been repealed on all goods except tea. In 1773, colonists disguised as Native Americans dumped chests of tea from East India Company vessels into Boston harbour in protest against this remaining levy. Political tensions between the American colonists and the British government escalated as a result.
1774
Methodist John Wesley publishes ‘Thoughts Upon Slavery’
John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church, was a lifelong opponent of slavery. In 1774 he published a pamphlet entitled ‘Thoughts Upon Slavery’, which examined how Africans were captured and transported, and proposed legal and moral arguments against slavery and the slave trade. In 1788, at considerable personal risk, he preached a sermon against slavery in Bristol, one of the leading slave trading ports. Nonconformists, particularly Quakers, were very active in the abolition movement, and included other well known individuals such as Joseph Priestley and Josiah Wedgwood.
18 April 1775
American War of Independence begins
On 18 April 1775, a skirmish between British redcoats and the local militia at Lexington, Massachusetts, led to the fighting that began the American War of Independence. No one knows which side fired the first ‘shot heard around the world’. About 15 months after the outbreak of war, colonial leader Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, which argued that the goals of the United States of America were ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’. In September 1783, the Treaty of Paris formally ended the war.
1779
Penitentiary Act authorises state prisons
An investigation into the state of English and Welsh prisons in the mid-1770s by penal reformer John Howard revealed the dreadful conditions, inadequate diet and corrupt administration of many jails. The Penitentiary Act was introduced with the intention of remedying the situation. This was the first British law to authorise state prisons.
2 - 11 June 1780
‘Gordon Riots’ break out in protest against the Catholic Relief Act
In 1778, parliament passed the Catholic Relief Act, which removed many of the traditional restrictions on Catholics in Britain. George Gordon, leader of the Protestant Association, was leading a huge crowd to parliament with a petition calling for repeal of the act when anti-Catholic violence erupted. The ensuing orgy of property destruction and disorder lasted a week. Hundreds died in fighting between protestors and troops. These were amongst the worst riots in English history.
19 October 1781
Americans defeat the British army at Yorktown, Virginia
British forces were besieged on the Yorktown peninsula, Virginia, by the American continental army in the west and the French fleet closing on Chesapeake Bay. Left in a hopeless situation, General Charles Cornwallis surrendered to American general George Washington, effectively ending the American War of Independence. The victory demonstrated beyond doubt that Britain could not hope to win a war so far from its own shores. The British government was forced into negotiations to end the conflict.
29 November 1781
133 Africans are thrown overboard the slave ship ‘Zong’
During a voyage from Africa to Jamaica, the captain of the slave ship ‘Zong’ ordered 133 slaves to be thrown overboard alive. The ship’s owners then filed a fraudulent insurance claim for the value of the dead slaves. In March 1783 the case was heard in London as an insurance dispute rather than a murder trial. The case was widely publicised by outraged abolitionists, particularly Olaudah Equiano and Granville Sharp, and helped to attract new supporters to the abolition cause.
1783
Britain begins to evacuate loyalists from American colonies
When it became evident that the American colonists were winning their war of independence, those who had fought for the British faced an uncertain future. These included former slaves who had fought on the understanding that they would gain their freedom at the end of the conflict. Around 75,000 loyalists decided to leave, most of them going to the British North American colonies in what is now Canada, others to the West Indies and some to Britain. In 1792, more than 1,100 freed slaves and their families who had gone to Nova Scotia left Canada to settle in Sierra Leone, West Africa.
December 1783
William Pitt the Younger becomes prime minister
After three brief ministries had failed, the William Pitt the Younger became Britain’s prime minister at the age of 23. (His father, William Pitt the Elder had held the office twice, in the 1750-1760s). His critics said that the nation had been ‘entrusted to a schoolboy’s care’. He successfully curbed the national debt, fought revolutionary France, restructured the government of India and passed the Act of Union with Ireland in 1801. Exhausted and in poor health, he died in 1806.
13 May 1787
First fleet of convicts sails to Australia
Since 1718, Britain had transported convicts to its North American colonies, until this was ended by the American War of Independence. On 13 May 1787, penal transportation resumed with a fleet of convict ships setting out from Portsmouth for Botany Bay. This marked the beginning of transportation to Australia. Between 1787 and 1868, when transportation was abolished, over 150,000 felons were exiled to New South Wales, Van Diemen’s Land and Western Australia.
22 May 1787
Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade is formed
The committee was formed by 12 men, the majority of them Quakers. The two non-Quakers, Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson, devoted their lives to the cause of abolishing slavery. These men provided MP William Wilberforce with material to assist his parliamentary efforts to abolish the slave trade. They wrote books and pamphlets and produced prints and posters to publicise the cause. Clarkson travelled tirelessly through England, organising local abolition committees, rallies and petitions and collecting information on slavery from sailors and others who had been involved in the slave trade.
1788
Under pressure from abolitionists, parliament investigates the slave trade
Pressure from abolitionists and detailed information gathered on the transatlantic slave trade resulted in the first parliamentary investigation of the trade. Abolitionist Thomas Clarkson led the fact-finding mission, while member of parliament William Wilberforce became the parliamentary spokesman. There was mass public support for the abolition of the slave trade - in 1788 alone, 103 pro-abolition petitions were sent to Parliament, signed by between 60,000 and 100,000 people.
1 January 1788
First edition of ‘The Times’ of London is published
Originally founded in 1785 as the ‘Daily Universal Register’, the publication was re-named ‘The Times’ three years later. It is Britain’s oldest surviving newspaper with continuous daily publication, and for much of its history has been regarded as the newspaper of record. Newspapers have been published in Britain since the early 16th century, but it was not until the early 18th century that regular daily newspapers were produced.
November 1788 - February 1789
George III’s illness sparks a regency crisis
George III probably suffered from porphyria, a rare hereditary disease marked by severe attacks of pain and mental instability. For four months in 1788-1789 he was incapacitated by his illness, raising the possibility a ‘regent’ having to rule on his behalf. This regency crisis was averted by the George’s sudden recovery.
29 April 1789
Former slave Olaudah Equiano publishes his autobiography
Olaudah Equiano was a former slave who settled in London and became closely involved in the abolition movement. His autobiography ‘The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano’ is one of the earliest known examples of a published work by a black writer. The public was fascinated by the story of a slave who converted to Christianity, learned to read and write and, by trading on the side, earned enough money to buy his freedom. The book became a bestseller.
14 July 1789
French Revolution begins with the storming of the Bastille
The storming of the Bastille prison in Paris is generally held to mark the beginning of the French Revolution. This was a world-shattering event, in which the French monarchy was overthrown, the king, Louis XVI, executed and a republic established. It stimulated political debate in Britain between British Jacobins (pro-revolutionaries, named after the Jacobin Club in Paris), some of whom were republicans, and loyalists, who stressed the virtues of the existing British constitution
9 April 1791
Parliament rejects William Wilberforce’s bill to abolish the slave trade
MP William Wilberforce introduced a bill to abolish the slave trade in May 1789. The bill was stalled and eventually consideration of the question was moved to a select committee. A general election again delayed progress and when the bill eventually came to a vote, it was passed by the Commons but defeated by the Lords. Between 1792 and 1806 a number of further unsuccessful attempts were made to enact parliamentary legislation which would either control or abolish the slave trade.
1792 - 1794
Radical artisans form the London Corresponding Society
The spirit of ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’ that stemmed from the French Revolution of 1789 had inspired the establishment of radical societies in Britain. In January 1792, the ‘London Corresponding Society’, the most prominent of these organisations, was formed under the leadership of Thomas Hardy, a Scottish shoemaker. The LCS debated the need for parliamentary reform. It advocated universal male suffrage, a secret ballot and annual parliaments. The government banned the LCS in 1794.
7 March 1792
Sierra Leone is established under British rule as a home for former slaves
A British settlement had been established in the area of West Africa now known as Sierra Leone in 1787, but the community was almost entirely wiped out due to failed crops and disease. In 1792 a group of 1,100 people left Nova Scotia to establish a community of free black people in Sierra Leone. Many of these settlers were black men and women who had fought for the British in the American War of Independence.
1 February 1793
Britain goes to war with France
The French had been at war in Europe since 1792, but it was not until the execution of Louis XVI, king of France, that Britain joined the anti-French coalition. In 1805, Britain attained complete mastery of the seas at the Battle of Trafalgar, but by 1807 Napoleon Bonaparte, the emperor of France, was master of continental Europe. War continued until the final defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
1793
British troops attempt to suppress Toussaint L’Ouverture’s rebellion in Haiti
St Domingue had the largest slave population and was the wealthiest colony in the Caribbean. When a slave rebellion broke out, panic spread among slave owners all over the region. British troops were ordered to invade St Domingue, but disease and Toussaint L’Ouverture’s irregular army forced them to withdraw. In 1802 Napoleon sent a French army to crush the rebellion. Toussaint was captured and imprisoned in France, where he died, but his army triumphed and on 1 January 1804 declared the Republic of Haiti.
April - June 1797
Naval mutinies occur at Spithead and the Nore
Two mutinies broke out in the Royal Navy after clashes between seamen and officers over pay and conditions. There were fears in that such disturbances might be the trigger for a French-style revolution. The Spithead mutiny (near Portsmouth) ended in a royal pardon for the crew. At the Nore (on the Thames Estuary), the mutiny was starved out and one of the ringleaders, Richard Parker, was hanged. Mutinies occurred in several European navies in the 1790s.
