SLAVERY 



501 



Wilberforce, and Zachary Macaulay was one of 

 its most zealous friends. The Quakers were 

 the only religious body who as such petitioned 

 the House of Commons on the subject. Many not 

 unkindly people defended slavery. Thus Boswell, 

 who on this point opposed his master, speaking of 

 ' so very important and necessary a branch of com- 

 mercial interest,' says : ' To abolish a status which 

 in all ages God has sanctioned and man has con- 

 tinued would not only be robtery to an innumer- 

 able class of our fellow-subjects, but it would be 

 extreme cruelty to the African savages, a portion 

 of whom it saves from massacre and introduces to 

 a much happier life' (Life of Johnson, chap. xxxv.). 

 In 1788 an order of the crown directed that an in- 

 quiry should be made by a committee of the Privy- 

 council into the state of the slave-trade ; and an 

 act was passed to regulate the burden of slave- 

 ships and otherwise diminish the horrors of the 

 middle passage. A bill introduced by Wilberforce 

 for putting an end to the further importation of 

 slaves was lost in 1791, but in 1792 Wilberforce, 

 supported by Pitt, carried a motion to gradually 

 abolish the slave-trade. And it is noteworthy that 

 the anti-Christian French convention, influenced 

 by the teaching of Rousseau, decreed (4th February 

 1794) that slavery should be abolished throughout 

 the French colonies, and all slaves admitted to the 

 rights of French citizens. Meanwhile, conquest of 

 the Dutch colonies having led to a great increase in 

 the British slave-trade, an order in council in 1805 

 prohibited that traffic in the conquered colonies ; 

 and in the following year an act was passed for- 

 bidding British subjects to take part in it, either 

 for the supply of the conquered colonies or of foreign 

 possessions. In the same year a resolution moved 

 by Fox for a total abolition next session was 

 carried in the Commons, and, on Lord Granville's 

 motion, adopted in the Lords ; and the following 

 year the general abolition bill, making all slave- 

 trade illegal after 1st January 1808, was introduced 

 by Lord Howick (afterwards Earl Grey) in the 

 House of Commons, was carried in both Houses, 

 and received the royal assent on 25th March 1807. 

 British subjects, however, continued to carry on the 

 trade under cover of the Spanish and Portuguese 

 flags ; the slave-ships were more crowded than 

 ever, to reduce the chances of capture, and the 

 negroes were not unfrequently thrown overboard on 

 a pursuit. The ]>ecuniary penalties of the act were 

 discovered to l>e inadequate to put down a traffic 

 o lucrative as to cover all losses by capture. 

 Brougham therefore in 1811 introduced a bill, 

 which was carried unanimously, making the slave- 

 trade felony, punishable with fourteen years' trans- 

 portation, or from three to five years' imprisonment 

 with hard labour. An Act of 1824 declared it 

 piracy, and, as such, a capital crime, if committed 

 within the Admiralty jurisdiction ; and the statute 

 of 1837, mitigating tlie criminal code, left it punish- 

 able with transportation for life. The Anti-slavery 

 Society practically established the colony of Sierra 

 Leone in 1787 as a home for destitute negroes. 



The United States of America abolished the slave- 

 trade immediately after Great Britain (1808 ),and the 

 same was in the course of time done by the South 

 American republics of Venezuela, Chili, and Buenos 

 Ayres, by Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and, during 

 the Hundred Days after Napoleon's return from 

 Elba, by France. Great Britain, at the peace, 

 exerted her influence to induce other foreign powers 

 to adopt a similar policy ; and eventually nearly 

 all the states of Europe have passed laws or entered 

 into treaties prohibiting the traffic. The 'accession 

 of Portugal ami Spain to the principle of abolition 

 was obtained by treaties of date 1815 and 1817 ; 

 and by a convention concluded with Brazil in 1826 

 it was declared piratical for the subjects of that 



country to be engaged in the slave-trade after 1830. 

 By the conventions with France of 1831 and 1833, 

 to which nearly all the maritime powers of Europe 

 have since acceded, a mutual right of search was 

 stipulated within certain seas, for the purpose of 

 suppressing this traffic. The provisions of these 

 treatises were further extended in 1841 by the 

 Quintuple Treaty between the five great European 

 powers, subsequently ratified by all of them except 

 France. The Ashburton treaty of 1842 with the 

 United States provided for the maintenance by 

 each country of a squadron on the African coast ; 

 and in 1845 a joint co-operation of the naval forces 

 of England and France was substituted for the 

 mutual right of search. 



The limitation of the supply of negroes naturally 

 led, among other good results, to a greater attention 

 on the part of the masters to the condition of their 

 slaves. But the attention of British philanthropists 

 was next directed towards doing away with slavery 

 altogether in the colonies. Societies were formed 

 with this end, an agitation was set on foot, and 

 attempts were made, for some time without success, 

 to press the subject of emancipation on the House 

 of Commons. At length in 1833 a ministerial 



& reposition for emancipation was introduced by Mr 

 tanley (Earl of Derby), then Colonial Secretary, 

 and an emancipation bill passed both Houses, and 

 obtained the royal assent 28th August 1833. This 

 act, while it gave freedom to the slaves through- 

 out all the British colonies, at the same time 

 awarded an indemnification to the slave-owners of 

 20,000,000. Slavery was to cease on 1st August 

 1834 ; but the slaves were for a certain duration of 

 time to be apprenticed labourers to their former 

 owners. Objections being raised to the apprentice- 

 ship, its duration was shortened, and the complete 

 enfranchisement took place in 1838. The serious 

 decadence of trade and commerce in the British 

 West Indies has been commonly attributed to 

 emancipation ; but though the change in the posi- 

 tion of the negroes unquestionably contributed to 

 the result, it is clear that before a slave had been 

 manumitted by law the industry of Jamaica and 

 the other islands had already begun to fall oil'. 



The French emancipated their negroes in 1848 ; 

 as did most of the new republics of South America 

 at the time of their establishment ; while the Dutch 

 slaves had freedom conferred on them in 1863. 

 In Hayti slavery ceased as far back as 1791, its 

 abolition having been one of the results of the negro 

 insurrection of that year. In Brazil (q.v.) slavery 

 was not abolished until 1888. 



The history of negro slavery in the United States 

 is partly dealt with at Negroes (q.v.); the steps 

 that hindered or prepared the way for its final 

 abolition in 1862-65 are part of the history of the 

 United States (q.v.), and are dealt with in such 

 articles as ABOLITIONISTS, BROWN (JoHN), DRED 

 SCOTT CASE, GARRISON, LINCOLN, MISSOURI (for 

 the 'Missouri Compromise'), &c. Here it may 

 be noted that in 1800 there were in the United 

 States 893,041 slaves ; that Vermont, Pennsylvania, 

 Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New 

 York, and New Jersey emancipated their slaves 

 before 1840, most of them by gradual measures. 

 The average value of slaves was about this period 

 stated at $600. The 3,953,760 slaves at the 

 census of 1860 were in what were known as the 

 Southern States. Eminent leaders of public 

 opinion from the earliest period of the national 

 existence such as Washington, Franklin, Jeffer- 

 son, Madison, Jay, Hamilton regarded slavery 

 as a great evil, and inconsistent with the prin- 

 ciples of the Declaration of Independence. The 

 Society of Friends uniformly opposed slavery, and 

 agitated against it. The Presbyterian Church 

 made six formal declarations against it between 



