Significance of individuals Flashcards
Individual one- Clarkson
Facts- founder of society for affective the abolition of the slave trade in 1780s, Very committed to cause, travelled to Paris in 1789 to convince govt. of abolition, travelled 35,000 miles in total
- Propaganda, used slave ship brooks diagram and harnesses, shackles etc to show immorality of the trade, saw 319 ships and 3000 sailors in 1780s and there were 35000 voyages altogether. Leads to Dolben act in 1788 which improved conditions on slave ships but no abolition.
- Equiano- encouraged equiano to publish his book in 1789 which was a first had view of the problems of the trade, useful for promoting humanitarian argument
Overall, he was a driving force for SFEAST and the cause, but he had little success credible to him, as the Dolben act may not have been passed without Wilberforce’s work, 519 petitions were signed by 1792 although there was no link to him, and slavery reintroduced in 1802 by France, showing he failed to persuade govt.
Individual two- William Wilberforce
Facts- Hull MP who supposed SFEAST and put forward abolition bills in parliament every year from 1790-99.
- Used pamphlets, books, petitions and meetings to advertise the cause
- 1787,10700 people out of 50000 in Manchester signed anti slavery petitions and there were 519 petitions by 1792, (however no directly credible to him individually, more by the awareness raised by SFEAST as a whole.
Overall, He was the parliamentary driving force with the chance to appeal to the elite classes in parliament with his petitions and bills, however failed to initiate any substantial change that ended the trade by 1800; he applied constant pressure but fell short.
Individual 3- granville sharp
Facts- Granville sharp was lead humanitarian who fought in the Zong case in 1781, after 440 slaves Dailed from Africa to Jamaica, and 133 died from the conditions despite having 420 spare gallons of water on board.
- In the trial, the slaves were referred to being treated like cargo or animals rather than humans, and those who died were thrown overboard without any consideration.
- Sharp collected evidence to prosecute Captain Collingwood, but he was not prosecuted
Overall, Sharp was an early abolitionist campaigner who worked tirelessly to prosecute Collingwood and shed light on the trade, but failed to gain any tangible successes out of it, other than possible inspiring the work of Wilberforce and Clarkson, although there is a lack of evidence for this. Once again, he was committed but had little power to make any changes.
Judgement
The work of the 3 Individuals mentioned shows that the humanitarian argument collectively had a lot of support and were very committed to the cause, although in reality none of their work can be considered more significant than anyone else because they had nothing credible to show for their campaigning other than the dolmen act. Slavery continued because the economy was so reliant on it and it made £3MN a year for Britain, and despite the campaigners commitment, they couldn’t compete with that in the 18th century.
