Power and the people - Protest and change Flashcards
What were the corn laws?
- Britain had been at war with France from 1803-1815 and during the war, wheat prices had soared
- After the war, people wanted to trade with France again
- The politicians were wealthy landowners who had profited from wheat prices
- In 1815, they passed the corn laws to keep the price of wheat high
Who were the leaders of the anti-corn law league?
- The leaders were Richard Cobden and John Bright
- They were orators and toured the country making speeches
- They created pamphlets and newspaper articles
- They used the penny post to send pamphlets to every voter in the country
- The league had a lot of support which increased when Bright and Cobden were elected MPs in 1841 and 1843
Who was the Prime minister at the time of the anti-corn law league?
- Robert Peel was the prime minister at the time
- He supported free trade and wanted to repeal the Corn Laws
- However, he was a member of the Conservative Party. This was a problem because his party wanted to protect the wealth of the landowners
What event impacted the Anti-Corn law league heavily in 1840?
- In 1840, there was a potato famine in Ireland
- this caused the crop to fail and in 1846 Ireland had a terrible famine, killing around 1 million people
What were the outcomes of the Anti-Corn Law league?
- In 1846, Robert Peel repealed the Corn Laws
- He faced a backlash from his own party and resigned
- Farmers and landowners did not suffer and the poor were able to buy bread
What was the slave trade?
- The British and other European nations had set up plantations growing mainly cotton and sugar; they needed people to pick the crops. They got their enslaved people from the west coast of Africa.
- Britain was involved in the slave trade since the 1500s
What were the conditions like for slaves?
- Conditions were dreadful on the ships that took enslaved Africans across the Atlantic - The men, women and children were crammed in on top of each other
- On average, one-third of the passengers died on each crossing
- The enslaved people were treated like animals during the auctions, where people bid for them
- Their average life expectancy was 27
Who were the “white slaves”?
- The “white slaves” referred to the workers in the factories
- It became clear that if they opposed the horrible conditions of the British factories, they should also oppose slavery.
What was the Anti-Slavery society?
- The anti-slavery society was created by William Wilberforce
- They believed that slavery was not Christian
- The society held public meetings to educate people, they produced pamphlets and posters, and society members wore a badge to display their membership
- These actions were designed to raise awareness and show support for the abolition of the slave trade
Who was William Wilberforce?
- MP for Hull
- Motivated by his Christian faith
- Spoke in parliament and pushed several bills through to abolish slavery
- held meetings to convince other prominent members of society to end slavery and in 1797, presented a petition to parliament - it had more signatures than the Chartist petition
- secured the abolition of the slave trade Act in 1807, which would make it illegal to buy and sell slaves in the British Empire
Who was Granville Sharp?
- motivated by his studies and his interest in politics and law
- in the famous case of Jonathan Strong, who was recaptured by his former slavemaster and sent back to the West Indies, Sharp won his case for freedom
- brought attention to the case of the slave ship zong
Who was Olaudah Equino?
- had been enslaved to a ship-master and had travelled the world, during this time, he was educated and converted to Christianity
- Bought his freedom
- He wrote an autobiography - this was used by the abolition movement to win people’s support: it made people aware of the horrors of slavery
Who was Thomas Clarkson?
- collected information about slavery and the conditions on board slave ships
- considered slavery evil and saw it as his job to do something about it
- produced drawings of the conditions on slave ships and pamphlets to show how horrible the conditions were for enslaved people
Why was the abolition movement not fully supported by the government?
- Many of the MPs and Lords had benefited from slavery -> they would lose money by abolishing it
What was the “white man’s burden”?
- it was a propaganda created by slave trade supporters to support the view that black people were inferior, and that Britain had a responsibility to keep enslaved black people locked up
Who was Hannah More?
- Hannah More wrote poems for the movement.
- More met Wilberforce in 1787 and they formed a firm friendship, based around their faith and commitment to social reform
What were women’s roles during the abolition movement?
- Anti-slavery societies were run by women, demonstrating that women nationwide were concerned about the issue of slavery and were willing to take action
- By the time slavery were abolished in 1833, there 73 such organisations
Who were the maroon slaves?
- the maroon slaves escaped from the British when they took control of Jamaica.
- the British knew if word spread of this group, they would face slave rebellions everywhere
- Thus they negotiated with them
How did the French Revolution play a role in the abolishment of slavery?
- the French revolution spread new ideas of freedom and equality.
- two years after the french revolution, the enslaved people of St.Dominique, a French-controlled island, rebelled and killed the white plantation owners
- The French and British tried to stop this rebellion but failed
- Toussant Louverture led fellow enslaved people to victory and slavery was abolished on the island in 1804
What were the impacts of resistance to slavery?
- The rebellions sent a clear message that enslaved people were not willing to accept slavery, and expected more from life
- They proved they would use any means to gain freedom
Was economy a factor for the abolition of slavery?
- Some historians now argue that the abolition of slavery was less to do with a surge of social consciousness, and more to do with a decline in the economic benefits of slavery
- There was no need for the British to grow sugar themselves as it was cheaper to import it from Brazil and Cuba
What were the short-term impacts of the abolition movement?
- the Abolition of Slavery Act 1833 only freed slaves under the age of six
- William Wilberforce was criticised for this “staged” abolition. He believed that slaves had not been educated and that they needed training
- Many slaves were sacked if they refused to live in their old slave quarters
- smuggling of slaves became a problem: as it was carried out in secret, there was no one to regulate conditions
- For many slaves, freedom resulted in a decline in living standards as they tried to compete for work and wages
What was the long term impacts of the abolition movement?
- In the long term, the success of the abolition movement was undoubtedly a positive change for black people globally, as Britain increased pressure on other nations to abolish slavery
Why were the new factories built?
- Textiles such as woollen and cotton cloth were the main products being made in factories in Britain during the Industrial Revolution.
- The factories were built because the new machines that made production more efficient, cheaper and quicker were too big for people’s homes