Slave Trade

Question 1

What was the system to the transatlantic slave trade

Answer 1

1: Europe traded with Africa with goods Africa didn’t have for slaves.
2: slaves were transported to South America via boats
3: raw materials that slaves produced like sugar and tabacco were sent to Europe

Question 2

Arguments for the slave trade

Answer 2

• some Christian’s believed that slaves are part of the natural order or gods plan
• some believed slaves aren’t fully human
• some believed slaves couldn’t look after themselves
• slaves were essential for economic growth
• argument that free men should be able to be slaves if they want

Question 3

Arguments against slave trade

Answer 3

• morally unjust
• believed slaves were costly and expensive
• British industry didn’t depend on slaves due to industrial Revolution
• the products sourced from slaves weren’t essential
• 15% of slaves died during slave trade
• treated badly

Question 4

Who was William Wilberforce and what did he do

Answer 4

• mp from hull (poor)
• introduced reform bills after 1791 and it was his 3rd bill that passed in 1807 for abolition of slave trade
• after his first speech on slavery he secured a select comittee to investigate the trade which led to the first bill being not passed in 1791 but influenced his opinion in parliament
• was also a member of the evangelists group the Clapham sect, which was a group of men with networks to get rid of the slave trade

Question 5

Who was Thomas clarkson

Answer 5

• wrote a essay on slavery which 10,000 copies were made and sent to each mp
• he went round the country interviewing 20,000 slaves and obtained objects that slaves made to show they were human, collect equipment that was used on slaves
• he helped found 1200 branches of the society of abolition
• he researched and visited 317 slave ships
• quakers published his essay

Question 6

Who was olaudah equiano and what did he do

Answer 6

• ex slave that wrote about his experience
• first non white abolitionist who raised the profile of slaves through tours and autobiography in 1789. “The interesting narrative of olaudah equiano”
• in 1787 he joined the sons of Africa group which worked along British abolitionists
• in 1788 they organised a March to parliament in support of the dolben act 1788 which improved the conditions of slave ships as it limited the amount of slaves allowed on a ship to stop overcrowding

Question 7

Who was Granville sharp and what did he do

Answer 7

• 1 of the 12 men who in 1787 formed the society for effecting the abolition of the slave trade
• he used his political and legal skill to defend African people in London and saved many people from being sent back to West Indies
• in 1771 he defended a slave being forced to return to slavery. He won and the slave was freed

Question 8

Who was ottabah Cuguano: and what did he do

Answer 8

• a former slave who was freed by his master in 1772
• he was one of the leaders in London’s black community
• he continued against the struggle with slavery with public letters and newspaper, copies were sent to Berke and George III
• he failed to get people to change their mind but was the first black man to demand end to slavery

Question 9

Who was William roscoe and what did he do

Answer 9

• Liverpool abolitionist (Liverpool was a major port for slave grown goods)
• he wrote poems denouncing the slave trade such as the “wrongs of Africa”
• he was elected as mp for Liverpool in 1806

Question 10

Who was ignatius sancho and what did he do

Answer 10

• born into slavery in 1729
• he taught himself to read and write when brought to London he ran away and lived with duke of montagu and became his butler
• he wrote plays, poems and musics plus he wrote about his experience as an African in Britain which became a best seller with 1200 subscribers

Question 11

Who was James Ramsey and what did he do

Answer 11

• he was a navy ships doctor
• he lived in Caribbean and accepted white and black people into his parish
• he saw salves suffering in 1789
• he wrote an essay on the ‘treatment and conservation of African slave trade’ in 1784

Question 12

How did Unitarian’s help end slave trade (NC)

Answer 12

• Christians that didn’t believe in the trinity
• William roscoe was one and had parliamentary power, he spoke in parliament about supporting ending slave trade
• unitarianism was outlawed in teh toleration act in 1689

Question 13

How did quakers help the abolition
(NC)

Answer 13

• in 1783 there was a petition presented to the government by quakers that was nation wide with 273 signatures
• believed god was found in everyone
• Anthony benezet:
• “some historical account of Guinea” in 1772 influenced clarkson, Wesley and sharp
• wrote to the queen Charlotte in 1783 on slavery

Question 14

How did baptists help the abolition (NC)

Answer 14

• historically baptists have played a major part in encouraging religious freedom
• in Baptist movement everyone is equal and don’t believe in hierarchy
• this was attractive to slaves as it was more inclusive and democratic
• they were congressional and self governing

Question 15

How did Methodists help abolition (non conformists)

Answer 15

• Methodists were non conformists and didn’t conform to the rules do the established Church of England
• John Wesley-leader:
• went around the country preaching about abolition of slavery
• 1730s went to America to speak to enslaved people
• 1774 write a book called “thoughts on slavery” it had 4 editions and was very popular
• in 1788 he preached in Bristol about end of slave trade (largest ports of slave grown goods)

Question 16

How did evangelists help end slave trade (non conformists)

Answer 16

• 15 years prior to abolition the Clapham sect founded colony of Sierra Leone as a new front of abolition campaigns, however slaves were sent there to work for Britain and the Clapham sect approved of it
• Thomas clarkson was a prominent campaigner against slavery
• believed in spreading the Christian gospel by public preaching
• the Clapham sect comprised of wealthy men who had high status and networks inside and outside of parliament to bring end of Britain’s involvement

Question 17

How did slaves resist

Answer 17

• not working or doing it poorly
• destroying land and products
• escaping
• continuing their culture
• buying their own freedom by producing food
• fighting back
  -250 slave uprisings in South America/ Caribbean
  -3 major British colony slave uprisings
  Barbados in 1816; Demerara in 1823 and Jamaica in 1831-32.

Question 18

Facts about slaves

Answer 18

-90% of slaves worked
-those enforced in the British islands were the most severely poorly treated
-8/12 week voyage
-15% of slaves transported died on route
-1/10 slaves boats had rebellions on
-

Question 19

What was the treatment of slaves

Answer 19

• all had to work
• whipping/ beating
• tied them up together
• kept in poor conditions
• women were seen as sexual objects
• hooks around their necks to stop them escaping
• were marked

Question 20

Resistance aboard slave ships

Answer 20

• some slaves took their own lives
• 10% of ships had rebellions
• April 1737 100 slaves jumped over board but most were caught
• over 50 major incidents occurred on slave ships in middle passage between 1699-1865
• people attacked slave ships from on shore to save slaves
• evidence of 485 acts of violence resistance by Africans on ships

Question 21

Haitian Revolution 1791

Answer 21

• st domingue island French owned
• 1791-1803
• gained independence in 1804 and called Haiti
• British fought with the white/ plantation owners
• slaves fought with Spanish
• slaves burnt sugar plantation
• tousant louvature was the leader 1798
• stoke weapons
• gurilla warfare
• in 1802 20,000 French groups were sent in and disease hit the island causing them to die
• 50,000 troops went in and only 3000 left
• French Revolution caused it as French Revolution was arguing that all men are free

Question 22

How did it the Haitian Revolution effect back Home/ Britain

Answer 22

• abolitionists used it to prove how inhumane slavery was and that slaves didn’t want it
• more people began to learn about the slaves conditions
• fear of Revolution in British owned areas
• slowed abolition down as Britains always went against what the French did and French abolished slave trade in 1794 so Britain made it patriotic to support slavery
  -112,000 died
  -2000 Europeans died
  -spread to Lucia and Grenada
  -st Dominican rebellion 1791, 1000 plantations were burned becoming uneconomic

Question 23

How large was teh transatlantic slave trade for: 1450-1900
British West Indies
British North America
Brazil

Answer 23

• British West Indies: 2m slaves 17.7%
• British North America: 500,000 4.4%
• Brazil: 4 million 35.4%

Question 24

What was the change of sugar change in Britain

Answer 24

-1704 4 pounds
-1800 18 pounds
-1900 90 pounds
Slavery had finished and was producing more sugar then it did with slavery suggesting it is unprofitable and unnecessary. Argues against slavery

Question 25

How did sugar boycott help abolish slave trade

Answer 25

• came mainly from women
• the theory was that slave trade wouldn’t become profitable if women didn’t buy sugar
• in 1791, thousands of pamphlets were published to stop the buying of sugar and an estimated 3000-4000 thousand women refused to buy sugar during abolition.
• sales were cut and some shops even started selling sugar produced by free men

Question 26

Who was Josiah Wedgwood and how was he influential

Answer 26

• owned a successful pottery business until 1795 and designed and sold a slave medallion with the slogan “am I not a man and a brother”
• these were central to the abolition movement and were worn as a sign of rebellion against the slave trade.
• he was Unitarian who believed in freedom, humanism, tolerance and rationalism.
• closely associated with the lunar society of Birmingham and was composed of men who were interested in social and industrial progress.
• in 1787 Wedgwood became a member of the society for the abolition of the slave trade and used his connections to promote the cause

Question 27

How was economics influential to slave trade

Answer 27

-argued that the slave trade was the engine of the British economy for 2 centuries
-slavers we’re rich so had huge influence in parliament
-cities such as Liverpool and Britain heavily relied on the slave trade
-argued that slavery drove the industrial Revolution eg/ by providing Cotten to mills
-

Question 28

How was economics influential to the abolition of slave trade

Answer 28

• slaves were becoming increasing expensive towards the end of the 18th century and could cost between £5-£80 and more were needed and fewer were being shipped
• as the industrial Revolution picked up industries moved away form sugar to Cotten after technology and this wasn’t produced in the Caribbean
• sugar intake kept increasing with 14% of daily calories coming in from sugar. People consumed 4 pounds per year in 1704 but in 1900s it increased to 90 pounds per year. Sugar produced products grew without slavery
• however if slavery did lead to industrial Revolution then y didn’t Portugal industrialise before or more
• abolition had little effect to Europe’s economy

Question 29

What happened to slave owners after the abolition of slave trade and slavery

Answer 29

• £17 billion was given to slave traders when it was abolished
• compensation was paid when abolition occurred and 46,000 slave owners claimed it.

Question 30

Facts about slaves

Answer 30

• life expectancy was only 7 years on a plantation
• there were 40,000 owners to 800,000 slaves
• the slave code justified slavery
• slaves were branded like cattle
• mixed race people were treated better and either controlled slaves or were slaves
• the thistle wood diaries discussed the truth of slavery and how it operated

Question 31

How did slave revolts help the abolition act

Answer 31

• put pressure on the government to stop uprisings or give slaves what they wanted
• a uprising in Haiti caused death of 1200 people and many more occurred in British colonies
• to stop revolts slave conditions were improved eg/ less amount of slaves on ships
• in 1792 the colonial assembly stopped the use of metal collars mutilation
• 3000 troups were sent to stop Revolutions but that was costly
• there has been many revolts but they were very bad in the late 18th century as teh British were at war with France making money more needed and wasn’t wasted on slave revolts.
• in

Question 32

How did Hannah more help the abolition

Answer 32

• she was a poet and writer who wrote about abolition. She was a member of an intelligent group of women called “blue stockings”. She met John newton in the Clapham sect. In 1788 she wrote “slavery a poem” to promote wilberforce and helped him in parliament, the poem described a child being separated form her mother due to slavery.
• poems were catchy and caught emotions which helped people oppose slavery

Question 33

How did Mary birkett card help with abolition

Answer 33

• 1792 she wrote a poem on the African slave trade and was a Quaker. It urged the boycott of slave produced goods. Over 300,000 people boycotted sugar when abolition bill in 1791 was defeated
• only poem that historian Clare midgely ‘identified’ in her study of women against slavery.

Question 34

How did Phyllis Wheatley help the abolition cause

Answer 34

• first published African American poet.
• she was kidnapped at age 8 and visited Britain in 1772. Her book of poems was published in 1773 and describes her experiences as a slave
• in 1789 one of her poems was published in a London newspaper

Question 35

How did ann yearsley help the abolition cause

Answer 35

-she was a poet in Bristol and wrote about the inhumanity of the slave trade which was published in 1788. Located in Bristol it influenced an economically important city and if people opposed the government it would have more of an effect.

Question 36

How did Amelia opie help the abolition cause

Answer 36

• poem the “negro boys tale; a poem addressed to children was published in 1802. This taught good morals for future events (possible teh abolition of slavery in 1833)
• successfully wrote on humanitarian issues in a populist style
• in 1844 she said “I believe simple moral tales the very best mode of instructing the young and the poor”

Question 37

How did Mary wollstonecraft influence abolition

Answer 37

• English writer, philosopher and advocate of woman’s rights
• regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers
• “a vindication of the rights of women” argues women are not naturally inferior to men but appear to be only due to lack of access to education
• led to power in women and records of their success

Question 38

How did women contribute to abolition

Answer 38

-women had no vote and little political influence
-white women okayed a part in campaigning and spoke out about slave trade, boycotted slave grown products
-historian Clare midgley revealed 10% of the 1787-8 subscribers were women
-
-in 1788 the abolition society had 206 female subscribers mostly wives, daughters of professionals, manufactures and shop keepers of quakers, unitarians and evangelical backgrounds
-some argue that women were more for feminism then equality in race and slave trade abolition

Question 39

Who was C.L.R James

Answer 39

• Wrote “the black jacobins” which was published in 1938. He drew a comparison between the Haitian Revolution and the French Revolution. It goes through louvature Revolution and was designed to be a weapon for revolutionary combat.
• his ideas were meant to inspire other revolutions saying slaves were far more humane then their owners
• he has no sympathy for the dead whites but for the black slaves
• he used to be a black slave

Question 40

Who was Eric Williams

Answer 40

• he was a professor author and pro minister of Trinidad and Tobago between 1962-85.
• he founded the peoples national movement and got independence in 1962. He practiced socialism and improved education, social services and teh economics of teh country, making it the wealthiest commonwealth Caribbean nation
• his book “capitalism and slavery” studies teh economic roles of blacks in the slave trade and how they industrialised Britain
• argued capitalism/economics led to teh destruction of slave trade
• he thought English abolitionist were hypocrites and only wanted abolition as well as economic downturn

Question 41

Who was Seymour drescher

Answer 41

• professor at Pittsburgh university, USA.
• his book “econocide” published in 1977 dismisses the idea that teh slave trade ended due to economic reasons.
• the slave trade in 1807 was actually at its peak so abolition was detrimental to teh economy.
• his ideas were more considered in Europe then Caribbean

Question 42

How did the French Revolution lead to revolts/ and abolition

Answer 42

-French Revolution fought for:
Egalite: equality
Fraternite: right of men
Libertie: freedom
-slaves heard of these Revolution reasons and that French public were given more rights and French owned colonie slaves beloved tehy should have these rights to
-led to Revolution in haiti in 1791
-after the revolutions 50,000 soldiers were sent out to end Revolution but 3000 survived only
-revolutions spread through all colonies and revolutions broke out scaring the British government and slave owners as they became uncontrollable during teh French war

Question 43

How was the war influential to abolition of slave trade

Answer 43

-The French National Convention abolished slavery in 1794

Question 44

How did American independence help abolition

Answer 44

-1775
-America gained independence from Britain
-450,000 slaves fought and when the war was won they escaped and became free
-this was known to British slaves

Question 45

What was the dolben act and who introduced it

Answer 45

Sir William dolben introduced it in 1788 under Pitt’s power. Limited the number of slaves who could be transported on a ship

Question 46

How did economics cause the abolition of slave trade

Answer 46

-slaves were between £5-£80 each
-had to pay for their survival
-slaves revolted by not doing their work and so less was produced
-expensive to run a slave farm due to the security of keeping slaves (stopping revolts needed men)
-boycotting sugar and other products
-the economy was at its highest in Britain due to the industrial Revolution and so didn’t need slavery to grow
-amount of sugar brought increased after slavery ended suggesting slavery wasn’t needed
-the French war was expensive (£60m in debt by 1815) and Britain couldn’t spare many troops to be sent to Caribbean

Question 47

Causes for end of slave trade

Answer 47

-slaves themselves
-economics
-male individuals
-French war
-women
-religious groups

Question 48

What missionaries were in Caribbean

Answer 48

-Moravian missionaries converted and baptised 13,000 slaves

Question 49

How did middle class/ humanitarians cause abolution (anyone against inhuman actions)

Answer 49

-1788 102 petitions were sent calling for abolition
-1792 519 petitions were sent with 400,000 signatures
-after 1791 bill wasn’t passed 300,000 boycotted sugar
-Mary Burkett write a poem urging the boycot of slavery
-Josiah Wedgwood
-Hannah more 1788 poems supported W.W.
-Granville sharp 1772 freed 10,000 slaves

Question 50

How did politics cause the abolition

Answer 50

-William wilberforce
-Thomas clarkson essay sent to parliament, changed the mind of other politicians
-1788: 102 petitions were sent to parliament
-1792: 519 petitions with 400,000 signatures
-1796 parliament came very close to passing the abolition bill despite economic success of the slave trade, the House of Commons passed it but House of Lords stopped it. Showed there was a political support for abolition.

Question 51

What was the Jamaican uprising 1831-2

Answer 51

-known as the baptist war
-was an eleven-day rebellion that started on 25 December 1831 and involved up to 60,000 of the 300,000 slaves in the Colony of Jamaica.
-The uprising was led by a black Baptist, Samuel Sharpe, and waged largely by his followers.
-caused a damage of £1million
-500 died