Abolition de l'esclavage en GB (Le débat sur)

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Le débat sur l’abolition de l’esclavage en Grande-Bretagne : 1787-1840.

Sommaire

Intitulé du sujet

Les Britanniques se mobilisèrent contre le commerce des esclaves dès 1787, alors que leurs colonies sucrières dans les Caraïbes-et les treize colonies qu’ils venaient de perdre en Amérique du Nord -, s’étaient développées grâce à l’arrivée massive d’esclaves africains. C’était donc à l’un des éléments du commerce florissant de leur propre Empire qu’un groupe d’hommes et de femmes, Quakers et Anglicans, issus de la classe moyenne, s’attaquèrent dès 1787, en fondant The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade à Londres. Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp, Josiah Wedgwood et William Wilberforce entre autres, s’engagèrent dans une campagne contre le commerce des esclaves sur le terrain parlementaire, en ayant au préalable mobilisé la société britannique par le biais de pétitions et de publications. En 1788 et 1792, le Parlement reçut des milliers de signatures (500 pétitions) issues de comités provinciaux contre l’esclavage. Le “lobbying” de la Société contre l’esclavage auprès du Parlement déboucha finalement sur la loi de 1807 qui interdisait le commerce des esclaves dans l’Empire britannique. Le débat autour de l'esclavage prit une place centrale dans les premières décennies du XIXe siècle car cette cause correspondait aux aspirations humanitaires et économiques de la nouvelle classe moyenne qui gagnait progressivement en puissance dans la sphère politique. La cause des esclaves ralliait une majorité de la population, sans distinction de classe ou d’église (plus de 800 pétitions contre l’esclavage adressées au Parlement en 1814, ou au Prince Régent en 1828). En 1833, le Parlement britannique déclara l’émancipation de 750.000 esclaves sur le million que comptaient les îles des Caraïbes, après avoir reçu 5000 pétitions, signées par un million et demi de Britanniques, ainsi qu’une pétition spéciale signée par des femmes. En 1840, Londres accueillit la première convention internationale contre l’esclavage, qui réunissait des anti-abolitionnistes américains et britanniques.

Au cours de l’analyse de ce débat contre l’esclavage entre 1787 et 1840, on prêtera une attention toute particulière à des aspects à la fois politiques et sociétaux : - la campagne pour l’abolition de l’esclavage (pré-1807) puis celle en faveur de l’émancipation (post-1807) témoignent d’une société britannique transformée et modernisée en moins de cinq décennies. On peut se demander comment ces deux campagnes, menées entre 1787 et 1838, participèrent à la transformation radicale de la société britannique, au sein de laquelle on pouvait noter la montée en puissance de la classe moyenne, les leaders de ces campagnes ; - la campagne pour l’abolition du commerce des esclaves, puis celle consacrée à l’émancipation de ces derniers, créèrent une dynamique nationale qui réussit à rallier des éléments de la société britannique souvent opposés par ailleurs : les classes moyennes, les ouvriers, les “reformers” et les radicaux, les Anglicans et les "dissenters", les hommes et les femmes… Quels étaient les ferments politiques et religieux qui rassemblaient ainsi cette “nouvelle” nation britannique ? - si les deux campagnes semblèrent mobiliser la société britannique sans distinction, on peut se pencher sur les demandes plus catégorielles, celles de réformes politiques et sociales, qui opposaient la classe moyenne aux classes ouvrières, dans les années 1830-40. Comment et pourquoi les tensions entre ces classes sociales, sensibles sur la plupart des débats politiques (Repeal of the Test Act, Great Reform Act, New Poor Law, Factory and Mine Acts, the Woman Question, the Anti-Corn Law League, Chartism…), se sont-elles apparemment apaisées autour de la campagne contre l’esclavage? - quel était le poids du contexte international sur la campagne britannique avant et après 1807, puis après 1833 ? On pourra, entre autres, réfléchir aux influences de la révolution française, puis à celles de la période napoléonienne, sur le débat britannique (Toussaint Louverture, révoltes de St Domingue et la Martinique, rétablissement du commerce des esclaves par Napoléon…). Dans les années 1830-40, on pourra s’intéresser aux échanges sur le sujet de l’esclavage avec les abolitionnistes américains.

Chronology

  • 1452 : Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, granting Afonso V of Portugal the right to reduce any "Saracens, pagans and any other unbelievers" to hereditary slavery which legitimized slave trade under catholic beliefs of that time.
  • 1455 : Approval of slavery reaffirmed and extended in his Romanus Pontifex bull.
  • 1462 : Pius II declared slavery to be "a great crime".
  • 1494 : Treaty of Tordesillas (Portuguese: Tratado de Tordesilhas, Spanish: Tratado de Tordesillas), signed at Tordesillas (now in Valladolid province, Spain), June 7, 1494, divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe into an exclusive duopoly between the Spanish and the Portuguese along a north-south meridian
  • 1537 : Sublimus Dei (also seen as Sublimus Deus and Sublimis Deus)  : papal bull promulgated by Pope Paul III on May 29, 1537, which forbids the enslavement of the indigenous peoples of the Americas (called Indians of the West and the South) and all other people.
  • 1562 : John Hawkins led the first British slaving expedition
  • 1663 : Establishment of the Company of Royal Adventurers, monopolistic venture that gave legal sanction to slave trade in Africa
  • 1672 : Establishment of the Royal Africa Company, with the sole right of trading in a range of commodities such as gold, ivory and spices, and human beings in Africa.
  • 1698 : Monopoly lost
  • 1713: the 1713 Peace of Utrecht. The trade in slaves to British possessions was granted exclusively to British ships in the Asiento Clause secured in the 1713 Peace of Utrecht. The South Sea Company was then awarded the Asiento Contract. ref: The History Today Companion to British History (1995)edited by J. Gardiner and N. Wenborn
  • 1750: The South Sea Company surrendered the Asiento and other trading privileges to the Spanish crown in return for 100,000 pounds. ref: The History Today Companion to British History (1995)edited by J. Gardiner and N. Wenborn
  • 1772: The Somerset Case. A judgement by Lord Mansfield in the Somerset vs Stewart case affirmed that black slaves in England might not be forcefully sold abroad by their masters. ref: The History Today Companion to British History (1995)edited by J. Gardiner and N. Wenborn
  • 1778: The Knight vs Wedderburn case established that Scottish courts would not uphold a master's claim against a runaway slave. ref: The History Today Companion to British History (1995)edited by J. Gardiner and N. Wenborn
  • Sept 1781 : The Zong slaveship massacre : 132 enslaved Africans perished, jettisoned overboard. Case came to court in March 1783 as an insurance claim, not a murder trial.
  • 1784 : Ramsay's Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British sugar Colonies
  • 1787 (May) : Establishment of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, later named "Society for the abolition of the slave trade"
  • 1788 : Investigation of the House of Commons (Trade Committee of the Privy Council) on slave trade initiated by Wilberforce, presented by the Privy Council the following year.
  • 1789 (12 May) : First major abolition speech of Wilberforce in the House of Commons - Vote defeated by 163 to 88.
  • 1794: British failed attempt to invade St Domingue, a former French colony
  • 1805 : Nelson's victory over Napoleon at Trafalgar lifts the threat of a French invasion
  • 1806 : Death of PM William Pitt. Successor Lord Grenville  ; Wilberforce's A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade
  • 1807 : Creation of the African Institution to promote Civilization and Improvement by Wilberforce
  • 25 March 1807 : Slave Trade Act, abolishing slave trade in the British Empire
  • 1815 : Corn Laws
  • 1816 : Bussa Revolt in Barbados
  • 1819 : Peterloo Massacre : political rally demanding reform in which eleven protesters are killed
  • 1823 : Founding of the Society for the Mitigation and gradual Abolition of Slavery ; Anti-Slavery Monthly Reporter mouthpiece of anti-slavery activity ; Publication of Wilberforce's 56-page Appeal to the Religion, Justice and Humanity of the Inhabitants of the British Empire in Behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies
  • 1831 : Christmas Rebellion, also known as the Baptist War, Christmas Uprising and the Great Jamaican Slave Revolt of 1831-32 ; 10 day rebellion that mobilized as many as 60,000 of Jamaica's 300,000 slave population. Led by 'native' Baptist preacher, Samuel Sharpe, it was waged largely by, though not only, his Baptist followers amongst the slaves.
  • 1832, June : Reform Act : wide-ranging changes to the electoral system of the United Kingdom, widening of the franchise to include the rising number of middle class voters.
  • 1833 : Slavery Abolition Act, abolishing slavery throughout the majority of the British Empire
  • 31 July 1834 : Slavery in the British colonies officially ends
  • 1 August 1838 : Apprenticeship system abolished, four years only after having been introduced
  • 1865 : End of slavery in the United States under the ratification of the 13th amendment.
  • 1868 : 14th amendment in the US proclaims the Due process and rights of citizens, under which all persons born in the U.S. are citizens; this amendment gave citizenship to African Americans and native Americans.

Leading figures

  • William Wilberforce (1759-1833): A leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade.
  • John Henry Newton (1725–1807) Anglican clergyman and former slave-ship captain.
  • Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745–1797), also known as Gustavus Vassa,one of the most prominent people of African heritage involved in the British debate for the abolition of the slave trade.
  • Thomas Clarkson (1760–1846), leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire.
  • Ignatius Sancho (c. 1729-1780) composer, actor, and writer. He is the first known Afro-Briton to vote in a British election. He gained fame in his time as "the extraordinary Negro", and to 18th century British abolitionists he became a symbol of the humanity of Africans and immorality of the slave trade. The Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African, edited and published two years after his death, is one of the earliest accounts of African slavery in English that was written by a former slave.
  • Granville Sharp (1735-1813) British campaigner for the abolition of the slave trade, and a classicist.
  • The Clapham Sect : social reformers in England at the beginning of the nineteenth century (active c. 1790 – 1830).
  • Anthony Benezet, or Antoine Bénézet (January 31, 1713 - May 3, 1784), American educator and abolitionist.
  • Zachary Macaulay (Clapham Sect)
  • James Stephen (Clapham Sect)
  • Ottobah Cugoano (c.1757, date of death unknown) African abolitionist who was active in England in the latter half of the eighteenth century.
  • John Hanway, helped establish the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor in the mid 1780s.
  • Hannah More
  • John Smith (1790-1824) was a missionary whose experiences in the West Indies attracted the attention of the anti-slavery campaigner, William Wilberforce. Sentenced to death for promoting discontent and dissatisfaction in the minds of the African slaves at plantation Le Resouvenir, he died as a result of the awful conditions in jail. His death was a major step forward in the campaign to abolish slavery.
  • Samuel Sharpe(1801, Jamaica - May 23, 1832, Jamaica) : also known as Daddy Sharpe, he was the slave leader behind the Jamaican Baptist War slave rebellion.
  • Joseph Sturge (1793 - May 14, 1859) : English Quaker and founder of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society; he spent his life engaged in Radical political actions supporting pacifism, working class rights, and the universal emancipation of slaves. In Jamaica, Joseph Sturge helped to found Free Villages with the Baptists, one of which was named Sturge Town in his memory. He exposed the cruelty and injustice of apprenticeship.

Useful vocabulary

  • Apprenticeship scheme = the Emancipation Act passed in 1833 provided that children under six years of age were to be free from 1st August 1834, while the older slaves were to serve a period of apprenticeship before they were to be completely free; during the period of apprenticeship, the apprentices were to work for the estates two thirds of the working week without wages, and the remaining one third for wages.
  • Chattel = bien meuble ; mobilier
  • Coffle = gang of slaves driven to the market
  • "Guineamen" = slaveships
  • Heathen /hi/ = païen
  • Maroon = derived from the Spanish term for wild.
  • kangaroo court = tribunal irrégulier
  • Middle Passage : the middle portion of the Triangular Trade, i.e. the transportation of African captives from Africa to the Americas or Caribbeans.
  • "redlegs" = farmers from GB
  • Slaveship (or slaver) = vaisseau négrier. A very famous one is the Brooks whose description appears in a lot of history books.
  • Triangular slave trade : The first leg of the triangle was from a European port, where supplies such as copper, cloth, trinkets,slave beads, guns and ammunition would be shipped to a port in Africa. When the slave ship arrived, its cargo would be sold in exchange for slaves, who were often tightly-packed like any other cargo to maximize profits. The ship would then make the journey along the Middle Passage to the New World. Once the slave ship reached the New World, the survivors would be sold for a good profit. The ships were then prepared to get them thoroughly cleaned, drained, and loaded for a return voyage to their home port. From the West Indies the main cargo was sugar, rum, and molasses; from Virginia, it was tobacco and hemp. The ship then returned to Europe to complete the triangle. from wikipedia

Links

Primary Sources