Slavery Flashcards
What were some of the methods of capture?
Kidnap by assailants
Sold by tribal leaders
Sent to slave houses
What was sold in exchange for slaves?
Weapons, cotton, sugar, rum, coffee etc
What were the conditions on a slave ship?
Densely packed, lots of disease, chained in rows to the floor, cramped, death common
Time to complete the Middle Passage
3-4 months on average
How high were the shelves on ships?
Less than 1m high
How many slaves could be transported at one time?
600+ depending on size
When was the Dolben Act?
1788
What did the Dolben Act outline?
Fixed number of slaves allowed on a ship
How much space were men and women given on a ship?
6ft by 1’4” for men
5ft by 1’4” for women
How many died on passage and on arrival according to whom?
12.5% on passage
4.5% dies on arrival
William Wilberforce
What were auctions like?
Treated like animals for sale
Sometimes oiled, washed and shaved
Graded and examined
What were plantations like for people?
Brutal, labour intensive work
Separated from families
Branded and issued with a new name
“Seasoned” to work in harsh conditions and receive the lash
How many slaves remained when slavery ended in the West Indies?
670 000 of 2 million
What were crimes and punishments?
Neglect, absence from work, eating sugar cane, theft
Receive the whip, beating, breaking of bones, chain, iron crook or even murder
Shortened lives expected
How much profit could British slave ship owners make?
20-50%
How much of textiles was exported from Manchester?
50%
What were the main slave ports in Britain?
Liverpool and Bristol
How much did Liverpool’s population increase by, and from when?
5000 to 78 000
From 1700 to 1800
How did slavery benefit ordinary people? Give an example
Generated jobs
Birmingham had 4000 gun makers which exported 100 000 guns to the slave trade a year
Why did the humanitarian campaign grow?
Increasing concern for others welfare
Belief to care for those who were less fortunate
What event had raised issues of human rights at this time?
The Enlightenment
What was the first humanitarian campaign?
Foundling Hospital for abandoned children in 1739
Who were the Quakers?
A religious group formed in 1650 who believed God was found in everyone, and everyone was equal before God.
When did the Quakers petition the slave trade? How many signed?
June 1783
273 signatures
How many were in a committee set up by the Quakers?
23 to campaign the abolition of slavery
When was a second Quaker committee set up?
July 1783
Sent out articles on slavery
When was the Quaker pamphlet made? How many copies were made? What was it called?
1784
10 000 copies
‘The Case of our Fellow Creatures, the Oppressed Africans’
Who was the Quaker pamphlet distributed to?
MPs, the royal family and the public
What notable places did the Quakers visit?
Eton, Harrow and other elite schools
What did Evangelical Christians believe in?
Strength of repentance as salvation
Had to turn away from sins to reach heaven
Name two notable Evangelicals?
Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson
How did the Evangelicals gain support against slavery?
Wrote speeches and researched to form stronger arguments. Were against the inhumanity of the institution and morals
Role of Granville Sharp in Jonathan Strong case
Strong arrived at his house
Had a 4 month recovery to full health
Sharp took David Lisle (who aimed to recapture Strong) to court
Freed Strong and benefitted the campaign against slavery
Where did Sharp propose a colony for free slaves?
Sierra Leone
How much did the gov. contribute to the Sierra Leone Company?
£1700
Why did Sierra Leone fail?
Agriculture thought to be good but many contracted malaria on arrival
122 died as a result
Why did Sharp lose some support?
Supporter of the French Revolution
Seen as too radical
Who designed ‘Am I Not a Man and a Brother’?
Josiah Wedgewood
What was the purpose of the ceramic by Josiah Wedgewood?
Shows a slave begging for freedom which appealed to the white superior, and Christian nature
Aim to show a grateful figure for the abolition of slavery
What was the Brookes diagram?
Poster of a ship which carried 482 slaves
Impersonal, but hard evidence
How many slaves had the Brookes ship carried in the past?
Between 609-780
How many copies of the Brookes poster were printed?
7000 +
Who led the Zong ship and when?
Captain Luke Collingwood
1781
How many slaves were on the Zong?
440
How many slaves had died on the Zong after 3 months?
60
How much were slaves ensured by per head?
£30
What controversial event happened on the Zong?
Collingwood ordered the sickest slaves to be thrown overboard in order to claim on the insurance
Claimed there was not enough water
How many slaves were thrown overboard on the Zong?
133
How much spare water was there?
420 gallons
Who attempted to prosecute for murder in the Zong case? When?
Granville Sharp
1783
What did Lord Mansfield say about the Zong case?
It was not a murder case it was ‘just as if horses were killed’
What organisation did Thomas Clarkson set up with the Quakers and in what year?
The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade
1787
What type of people were members of the Society?
Social reformers from many religious backgrounds including Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp
What was the aim of the Society?
Aimed to raise awareness amongst the public and apply political pressure to the government by raising petitions and bills in the House of Commons
By 1792, how many anti-slavery petitions had been signed?
519
How many of the 50 000 population in Manchester has signed a petition by what year?
10 700 by 1787
Who presented an abolition Bill to Parliament every year, and between which years?
William Wilberforce
From 1791-99
Whose MP was Wilberforce?
Hull
How much of Britain’s income was reliant upon the slave trade?
24%
Example of a group opposed to the Society
West India Lobby
50 MP’s backed them including the mayor of London
How many slave voyages took place in the 18th century?
35 000
Which was the largest slave port in Britain? How much trade did it have?
Liverpool
3/7 of European trade
Created 1000’s of jobs
How much did Bristol rely on economically from the slave trade?
40%
How much of textiles was exported, and between when?
87%
Between 1784-86 and 1805-07
Which college was financed by the slave trade, and where from?
All Souls College, Oxford
Financed from a plantation in Barbados
How many voyages did Liverpool merchant William Davenport make?
74 voyages
How much profit did Davenport make?
8.1% overall
1779-80 American War of Independence he made a 73.5% and 147% profit from two voyages
How much profit did the Codrington plantation in Barbados make a year, with how many slaves?
£2000 a year
276 slaves
How much sugar was Britain importing by mid-1700s?
100 000 hogsheads (63 gallon caskets)
How much more was Jamaican sugar worth than the 13 mainland colonies?
5 times
How much more were imports worth from Grenada rather than Canada?
8 times
Who owned the Marlborough ship from Bristol?
William Lougher & Co.
When and where did the Marlborough sail to?
1752 to Annamaboe and Bonny on the West African Coast
How many slaves were purchased by the Marlborough?
420
What happened to the Marlborough?
3 days into voyage the slaves took over the ship. Crew were killed and remainder helped sail back to Bonny. 7 remaining crew and slaves returned to Bonny before setting off for the the Gold Coast. Never seen again. Owners of the ship made a loss in profit
Who owned the ship African Queen?
James Rodger
How many slaves were bought by the African Queen and when?
225 in 1792
How many of the African Queen ship died between Old Calabar and Jamaica?
21 crew died during 7-8 months at Old Calabar
28 died at the coast and 114 died on the middle passage
What happened to the African Queen?
Lots of disease and death on the ship
One agent refused to sell cargo due to state
By 1793 James Rodger went bankrupt due to poor management and high death rate
How many slave voyages were subject to revolt?
1 in 10
Affected profits
How did humanitarian abolitionists use the economic argument to their advantage?
Laissez-faire industrialisation offered an alternative means for economic growth and alleviated fears of businessmen who were concerned about their income. The increase in slave riots and rebellions cost too much and soldiers needed to be garrisoned to maintain peace
How much did profits amount to by the end of the 1700s?
From £1 million per year up to £3 million per year
How far did Thomas Clarkson travel to educate attitudes?
35 000 miles
Which doctors provided lots of evidence to Clarkson about slave ships?
James Arnold and Alexander Falconbridge
Where did Clarkson go in 1789 and why?
Paris to persuade the French government to abolish their slave trade
Seen as very radical so lost some support
When was slave trade abolished and how any votes were in favour? Which politician was most helpful with this?
25th March 1807 the abolition of slave trade
267 votes
William Wilberforce
What Society did Wilberforce join in 1821?
Society of Gradual Abolition
When did Wilberforce write one last petition after giving up his seat in Parliament?
1833 which lead to abolition of slavery Act passed 26th July 1833
Debate lasted 3 months
Who was Olaudah Equiano?
African born writer from the province of arbor who experienced the horrors of slavery
When did Equiano come to London? Which group did he become a member of?
1786
Sons of Africa
Who were the Sons of Africa?
A group of 12 black men who campaigned for abolition
What was the name of Equianos’ autobiography? When was it published?
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African
1789
What did Equiano do in 1788?
Led delegation to House of Commons to support William Dolben’s Bill to improve conditions on slave ships
When did Britain lose America? How did this affect abolition?
1783
Raised questions about liberty and the rights of men
By 1776, what percentage of the Thirteen Colonies were of African descent?
20%
What was one of the biggest impacts on Britain from the American War of Independence?
Loss of a market to sell slaves
What did the American Revolution cause people in Britain to consider?
Human experience and the importance of freedom
Used to justify the end of the slave trade
What improvement was made to the Dolben Act by 1799?
Made permanent with the Slave Regulation Act
Renewed every year
When was the French Revolution?
1789
When was slavery abolished in France?
1794
When did Napoleon reintroduce French slave trade ?
1802 in their colonies
Whose support did Wilberforce gain as the abolition movement grew in pace, and when?
PM William Pitt in 1806 and successor William Grenville
How did the French Revolution hamper the abolition movement?
Slavery abolished in 1794 meant that British abolitionists became tarnished with the revolutionary brush, and were seen as too radical
Lost some support
When was the Seditious Meetings Act?
1795
When were the Treason Trials?
1793 and 1794
What did the Seditious Meetings Act mean?
Government crackdown against ‘revolutionaries’ causing the abolition movement to falter
Which two well-known individuals were put on trial during the Treason Trials?
Thomas Paine and Thomas Hardy
Opposition to government policy
Who wrote the book ‘Rights of Man’ and when?
Thomas Paine
1791
What was the purpose of the ‘Rights of Man’?
Proposed that revolution was permissible when the government did not safeguard the human rights of its people. Government should support both human and civil rights of mankind
Who opposed Thomas Paine and his ‘Rights of Man’ book?
Edmund Burke
What book did Edmund Burke write, and when?
Reflection on the Revolution in France
1790
Why did many dislike Thomas Paine?
Seen as a supporter of the French Revolution
Seen as too radical
When was the Saint Domingue revolt?
August 1791
What did the slaves do at Saint Domingue?
Attacked plantation buildings, murdered white men and women
How many plantations were burned and how many were killed at Saint Domingue?
1000 plantations burned
12 000 killed
How large was Saint Domingue?
Twice the size of the largest British colony in the Caribbean, Jamaica
How much of the world sugar and coffee was produced at Saint Domingue?
30% of sugar
50% of coffee
When did the British invade Saint Domingue? Who did they come up against?
September 1793
Toussaint L’Overture (slave who had begun leading slaves on the island)
When was the Grenada revolt?
1795
What happened at Grenada during the revolt?
Rebel blacks and mulattos (offspring of slaves and whites) captured the islands governor, massacred whites, destroyed most of the plantations and held the bulk of the island for months
When was the St. Lucia revolt?
February 1795
Who led the slaves on St. Lucia?
Slave Victor Hugues
How many British troops did it take to regain control on St., Lucia, against how many slaves? When?
12 000 troops
2000 slaves
1803
When was the Revolt or Second Carib War of St. Vincent?
1795-1797
Who were the Caribs?
Indigenous people of the island of St. Vincent supported by slaves and some French forces
Who led the British expedition to end the St. Vincent revolt? When?
General Abercromby
1797
Where were the Caribs deported to?
Islands of Roatan, off the coast of Honduras
When was the Jamaican revolt?
1795
Who led the Jamaican revolt?
Community of free blacks known as the Maroons
Why did the Jamaican revolt start?
British soldiers seized and handcuffed six Maroon leaders
Maroons ambushed and killed 36 British cavalrymen in response
Which Maroon leader had a reward for his capture?
Leonard Parkinson
How many Maroons rebelled against how many British troops and Jamaican militia?
500 Maroons
5000 British and Jamaican
How many muskets did the Maroons have?
150
How much did the British spend in Jamaica on the revolt?
£500 000
When was a surrender agreed in Jamaica, and between who?
December 1795
Maroons and General Walpole
How many Maroons were deported to Nova Scotia despite the agreement?
569
How many of those in the British army, sent to fight revolts between 1793-1801 died?
89 000 white officers sent
45 000 died
How many British soldiers were discharged due to wounds or illness from the revolts?
14 000 men
How many British soldiers deserted during the revolts?
3000 men
How many sailors died on British naval or transport ships?
19 000
What was the role of naval ‘press gangs’?
Working and middle class people were kidnapped and placed on naval boats. Registered into the army without warning. Used to provide more troops to fight in slave revolts. Most never returned
What was the role of newspapers and coffeehouses and libraries?
Books and newspapers were completely uncensored so ideas of abolition spread freely. People could meet up and discuss ideas freely
How did the postal service help abolition?
Send a letter to or from London overnight or to Dublin within 3 days
Head post office 2 blocks away from printing shop
Easy spread of ideas
How long did it take for post to travel between London and Bristol?
16hrs
How many coaches were there between London and Birmingham between 1740-1783?
1740 - 1 coach a week
1783 - 30 coaches a week
