Module: HST6339 The Atlantic Slave Trade in Africa, Europe and the Americas
By Melissa Berry
The concept of women having an important role in the abolishment of the slave trade is one that is greatly overlooked in historical culture. Abolition heroines have been left out of the narrative of the ending of slavery. Apart from Clare Midgley’s Women Against Slavery, there is a large gap in the literature in regards to female participation within the anti-slavery campaigns. Instead, scholars have cultivated the traditional narrative to be centred on men and in turn, women have been portrayed as passive agents. This being largely due to the contextualisation of women being refrained within the domestic sphere. This essay will challenge the ideology that females only held a limited role in abolishing the Atlantic slave trade. To do so this essay will explore how females attained a foothold within the political realm. This will be shown through examining women’s anti-slavery organisations, publications through both poetry and pamphlets and their boycotting schemes. Overall this essay will challenge the traditional narrative that women had a limited role and instead show how women played a significant role in the abolishment of the slave trade in England.
The reason women are recognised for holding a limited role in the abolishment of the slave trade is because during the eighteenth and nineteenth-century female matters were within the domestic sphere. Abolishing the slave trade was thought to be a political endeavour; thus excluding female participation. As a result, the historical view has forgotten heroines from the popular memory, as now the ending of the slave trade is predominantly associated with William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson. Most notably, Wilberforce was against female’s involvement in the abolition movement as he believed that political activism by women was improper. The growth of female anti-slavery organisations between 1825-33 led to Wilberforce expressing his utter discouragement and disapproval. For example, in a letter written by Wilberforce to Thomas Babington, he voiced that it was out of character for women to contribute their efforts to petitions and that it was endangering the significance of their cause.[1] However, most notably Hannah More saw a loop whole within Wilberforce’s argument. As the slave trade issue was put forward to the public as a matter of moral and religious concern, which enabled women to assert their role within the political sphere.[2] Women’s philanthropic role had overlapping factors with the general matters of the campaign. Hannah More thereby suggested that females could use their influence within the domestic sphere.[3] For example, ladies were advised to teach their children and husbands to loathe the practices of slavery.[4] Thus indirectly enabling their influence within the political sphere. Therefore, whilst it is true that females acquired a minimal political stance, their social and emotional efforts should not be ignored when assessing their contribution to the abolishment of slavery.
Female anti-slavery organisations played a significant role in the abolishing of the slave trade. Historian George Stephen commented that anti-slavery meetings only started being well attended when it was agreed that ladies could be admitted. Inspired females then began their own anti-slavery organisations.[5] The first being on the 8th of April 1825 the first woman’s slavery society was established in Britain by Lucy Townsend. [6] It was later known as Birmingham Ladies Society for the Relief of the Negroes. The societies aim was to diffuse information to arouse public abhorrence of slavery, through poetry, pamphlets and speeches. To add to this, the Birmingham Ladies appealed to their female nature by emphasizing the endured brutalities and sufferings of the negro women and their unhappy children. For example, many female associations spread the case and trial of Captain John Kimber. He was trialled for murdering two negro females by flogging them to death as they refused to dance naked with him.[7] This would have aroused emotions of disgust to the treatment of negro women. Which contributed to a growing empathy towards the negro sufferings. Moreover, the annual subscriptions for female societies ranged between five to twelve shillings; because of this one can infer that the attendees were predominantly from a middle-class heritage. [8] Initially the subscription list shows only forty-four women. However, across the longevity of the 1820s anti-slavery societies became popular within English culture. Thereby the number of societies expanded greatly between 1825-1833 with the emergence of seventy-three active associations.[9] Despite male anti-slavery societies held the numerical advantage, females organisations began to close the gap from a ratio of eight to one in 1826 to a drastic change of two to one in 1831.[10] Notwithstanding, out of the seventy-three female association's thirty-one of them were located in towns with no male organisations.[11] Therefore, women involved themselves in societies that helped contribute to the movement of abolition through spreading philanthropic and moral concern. In spite of their exclusion from the political dimensions in regards to slavery.
Female literary publications in the eighteenth and nineteenth century were their most influential effort towards abolition. Literature was a common way for organisations to spread anti-slavery discontent and arouse popularity for the cause. Anna Laetitia poem ‘Epistle to William Wilberforce’ for example appealed to the delicate side of poetry and commended him for his stance on slavery.[12] Similarly, Hannah More’s Poem Slavery was written in 1788 in light of Wilberforce’s’ parliamentary campaign. [13] The poem vividly describes the mistreatment of slaves and sheds light on enslaved women being separated from their children.[14] The matter of separation was strategically included to get mothers to empathize with the abolitionist campaign. Thirdly, Charlotte Elizabeth Phelan was an anti-slavery activist whom devoted her writings to the universal suffering of women. [15] Most famously shown through her poem ‘On the Flogging of Women’. The poem infolds a dual meaning; it clearly calls for Christian men to defend negro women against the persecution of the whip. Additionally, the poem has an underlying message that enslaved woman shared a social parity with British middle-class females.[16] Thereby, Tonna expresses the ideology that it was unjust to violently and brutally mishandle women. These three poems were not penalised for impinging on political matters as they primarily focus on topics that are subjected to females characteristics around the slave trade. Poetry was a popular feminine endeavour that allowed females to express their views delicately.[17] However, not all female poets followed suit such as Ann Yearsley’s poem on the ‘Inhumanity of the Slave Trade’. In 1788 Yearsley was criticized for her poetry being too vigorous and energetic.[18] As her poem shed light to a case of an African boy being torn away from his family and sold into colonial slavery.[19] Yearsley covers the same topic of separation as More, however, she addresses how the evils that slavery permits in society violates basic human rights. By Yearsley implementing revolutionary ideas such as humanitarianism and liberalism resulted in her poem being scrutinised. During the eighteenth century, this thought was deemed too radical for a woman to be expressing. Nonetheless, all of these were female publications that supported the abolishment of the slave trade and helped contribute to public abhorrence towards slavery.
Another popular publication method used by female organisations was pamphlets. Two pamphlets, in particular, were influential in diffusing information about abolition. Firstly, Mary Dudley’s pamphlet (1828) used biblical scriptures to emphasise how slavery was sinful due to the unjust and oppressive manner that was being inflicted upon the negro race.[20] Her pamphlet was twenty-eight pages with multiple references to biblical texts that discourage slavery. The pamphlet was a direct attack to the English planters and owners of slaves who excused their oppressive treatment of the negro race for being religiously acceptable. The plethora of scriptures referenced was influential in making slave owners look at their actions and question the religious morality of them. Additionally, Dudley included an image of a negro women on her knees, praying that her master would read the bible to learn to not be cruel.[21] The image humanises negro women; reinforcing the concept that slave owners should have sympathy towards them.[22]
On another note, Elizabeth Heyrick published a controversial pamphlet ‘Immediate, not Gradual, Abolition’. Heyrick’s primal objective of the pamphlet was targeted against the policies of William Wilberforce’s abolition campaign. This was shown through the pamphlet calling for the nation to stop with their ignorant attitudes and neutral stances; instead, take a stand of either support or opposition of abolition. [23] Heyrick condemned the hypocrisy of people who took a neutral approach or pretended to commiserate with the slave, yet still purchased their labour. [24] Heyrick’s stance differed largely from Wilberforce’s’ gradual scheme of abolition. To the extreme extent of Heyrick illustrating Wilberforce in a negative light; condemning his policies as a master piece of satanic ideals and personifying him as the father of all lies.[25] In light of Heyrick’s pamphlet and other female associations, Wilberforce revealed his considerable uneasiness and concern with female interference with matters of justice and humanity.[26] Her attack against Wilberforce during a time when female political participation was deemed improper, lead to a greater scrutiny of women. For example, Wilberforce reacted by prohibiting abolition leaders from speaking to female anti-slavery societies. [27] Moreover, Heyrick concluded by suggesting that women’s associations should withdraw their funds from the anti-slavery society, if they didn’t pursue with the immediate action approach.[28] Associations never withdrew their donations but if Heyrick’s financial views was followed there would have been a great impact of the economical factors of the abolition movement. This being because the female societies in Birmingham alone supplied over a fifth of all donations. [29] Nonetheless Heyrick received a monumental success as a result of her pamphlet. As in 1830 The Anti-Slavery Society did change their title from gradual abolition to supporting the female societies in calling for the immediate end to slavery. Overall, the initial response to Heyrick’s pamphlet looked as though it would cause detrimental consequences for the female role in abolition. When in fact Heyrick triggered a shift in public opinion that the English Anti Slavery society needed to take a hard line approach to end slavery.
One of the most influential roles women held in regards to the abolishment of slavery was their abstention from slave grown sugar. The concept of refraining from the use of West Indian produced sugar is predominantly associated with William Fox. Fox’s pamphlet that was published in 1792 encouraged abstention in response to the failed petition in parliament and instead to put economic pressure on planters and slave owners to change.[30] His initial address was not directly aimed at female consumption or their refrainment. However, he referred to the link between household consumption and slave labour.[31] Thus his rhetoric appealed to women who were prominent in the domestic sphere in regards to matters of commerce.[32] Even so, it is worth noting that Fox was not the first to demonstrated an understanding of consumption and slavery along with methods to overcome. For example, Mary Knowles wrote a poem three years prior to Fox’s pamphlet that shed light to concept of consumption and abstention. Knowles famously known for defending women’s liberty; which extended across the later quarter of the eighteenth century to the liberty of all humans.[33] Despite it being Fox’s pamphlet that spurred a national movement, Knowles’ poem is important in showing that females were having that same ideas as men in regards to abolition. Yet because their foothold within the political sphere was overlooked, the retrospective memory has forgotten women’s significance.
Furthermore, activist Mary Birkett was inspired by Fox and urged women to adopt the boycotting schemes. Birkett’s A Poem of the African Slave Trade (1792) in stanza fifteen the focus is directed to women in the domestic sphere. For example, Birkett removes the ideology that females cannot be influential to the abolition campaign from the familial realm.[34] Notwithstanding, Birkett emboldened women to ‘push away from the plant’ that resulted in slaves persecution.[35] Birkett’s encouragement for women to use their role in the domestic sphere to influence their husbands and children, echoes a similar expression that Hannah More had also demonstrated. The national movement of abstention was subjected to both middle and working class women. For example, Thomas Clarkson stated that domestic servants, who were predominantly females, followed their masters example in not using slave grown sugar.[36] Thereby showing how the movement of abstention transmitted throughout English society. Female support in refraining from sugar was not only restricted to the domestic sphere; there presence was evident in the political scene. For example, Elizabeth Heyrick produced another pamphlet Appeal to the heart and conscience of British women. This time Heyrick urged women to boycott West Indian sugar, as the tax from it was paying for the direct support of slavery. [37] Overall, females held a significant role in both the domestic and political sphere in contributing to the efforts to abstain from slave grown sugar.
To conclude, this essay as put forward that women played a significant role in abolishing the Atlantic Slave Trade. The traditional narrative has overshadowed and thus forgotten females domestic and political efforts to the abolishment movement. The philanthropic nature that the anti-slavery campaigns embedded enabled women to contributed their efforts, as it had overlapping factors with their typical charactistics. This essay has shown that despite the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries being a period of female political oppression, women still had some political triumphs. Most significantly shown through the outcome of Elizabeth Heyrick’s not gradual but immediate ideology being used in the Anti-Slavery campaign. Alongside, the economic importance of the Birmingham Ladies Anti-Slavery society in providing over a fifth of all anti-slavery donations. This essay has provided multiple references to female organisations that were fundamental in diffusing anti-slavery literature. Predominantly through poems and pamphlets to spread public abhorrence to slavery. Overall, this essay has elevated the significance of women’s role even within the domestic sphere. For instance, boycotting was largely associated within the domestic realm, enhancing females impact to slavery by abstaining from slave grown sugar. Notwithstanding, it is generally accepted that females helped influence their husbands and most notoriously their children in spreading aversion to slavery. This essay has most importantly shown that female heroines of abolition such as Hannah More, Mary Dudley, Elizabeth Heyrick, Mary Birkett and Mary Knowles, should have a greater role within the traditional narrative, as their efforts helped propel towards the end of slavery in England.
Footnotes: [1] Andrew O. Winckles and Angela Rehbein, Women’s Literacy Networks and Romanticism: “A Tribe of Authoresses” (Liverpool University Press, 2017), 56, Google Books. [2] Clare Midgley, Women Against Slavery: The British Campaigns 1780-1870 (Routledge, 1992), 93-94. [3] Winckles and Rehbein, Women’s Literacy Networks and Romanticism: “A Tribe of Authoresses”, 57. [4] Edith F. Hurwitz, Politics and the Public Conscience: slave emancipation and the abolitionist movement in Britain (Allen and Unwin, 1973), 90. [5] Ibid. [6] Midgley, Women Against Slavery: The British Campaigns 1780-1870, 43-44. [7] “The Trial of Captain John Kimber”, Library of Congress, Google, accessed 25th November 2019, https://www.loc.gov/resource/llst.061/?sp=7 [8] Midgley, Women Against Slavery: The British Campaigns 1780-1870, 44. [9] Ibid., 45. [10] Ibid. [11] ibid., 46. [12] “A Celebration of Female Writers”, A. Laetitia Epistle to William Wilberforce, Google, accessed 25th November 2019, https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/barbauld/wilberforce/wilberforce.html [13] “Hannah More: Poet and Writer” The Abolition Project, accessed 25th November 2019, http://abolition.e2bn.org/people_60.html [14] Ibid. [15]Robin Sanger, Gender and Anti Slavery in the Atlantic World, accessed November 25th 2019, file:///Users/melissaberry/Downloads/gender-and-anti-slavery-in-the-atlantic-world-5.pdf, 3. [16] Ibid [17] J.R. Oldfield, Popular Politics and British Anti-Slavery: the mobilisation of pubic opinion against the slave trade, 1787-1807 (Manchester University Press, 1995), 137. [18] Ibid. [19] ibid., 136. [20] Mary Dudley, “Scriptures Evidence of the Sinfulness of Injustice and Oppression” Pamphlet, 1828, https://archive.org/details/ASPC0001888600/page/n1 [21] Midgley, Women Against Slavery: The British Campaigns 1780-1870, 98. [22] Dudley, “Scriptures Evidence of the Sinfulness of Injustice and Oppression”, 1. [23] Elizabeth Coltman Heyrick, “Immediate Not Gradual” Pamphlet 1837, https://archive.org/details/immediatenotgrad00heyr/page/n3, 4. [24] ibid., 8. [25] Ibid., 11-12. [26]Andrew O. Winckles and Angela Rehbein, Women’s Literacy Networks and Romanticism: “A Tribe of Authoresses”, 56. [27] “Elizabeth Heyrick: The Radical Campaigner” The Abolition Project, accessed 25th November 2019 http://abolition.e2bn.org/people_31.html [28] Ibid. [29] Ibid. [30] Midgley, Women Against Slavery: The British Campaigns 1780-1870, 35. [31] Julie L. Holcomb, “Blood-Stained Sugar: Gender, Commerce and the British Slave Trade Debates” Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies, Volume 35 (23rd June 2014): 619. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144039X.2014.927988 [32] Ibid. [33] Judith Jennings, “A trio of talented women: abolition, gender, and political participation 1780-1791” Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies, Volume 26 (6th October 2011): 64. [34]Mary Birkett, A Poem on the African Slave Trade (Dublin: printed by J. Jones), http://www.brycchancarey.com/slavery/mbc1.htm [35] Ibid. [36] Midgley, Women Against Slavery: The British Campaigns 1780-1870, 39. [37]“Learning the campaign for abolition: Source 9- Elizabeth Heyrick” British Library, accessed 26th November 2019, http://www.bl.uk/learning/images/makeanimpact/transcript9082.html
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