Editing Abolitionism (section)

==Great Britain==
{{Main|Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|Slavery in the British Isles}}
[[File:William Murray of Mansfield.jpg|thumb|upright|[[William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield|Lord Mansfield]] (1705–1793), whose opinion in [[Somerset's Case]] (1772) was widely taken to have held that there was no basis in law for slavery in England]]

===Overview===
[[James Oglethorpe]] was among the first to articulate the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] case against slavery, banning it in the [[Province of Georgia]] on humanitarian grounds, and arguing against it in Parliament. Soon after Oglethorpe's death in 1785, Sharp and More united with [[William Wilberforce]] and others in forming the [[Clapham Sect]].<ref>Wilson, Thomas, ''The Oglethorpe Plan'', 201–206.</ref>

The [[Somerset v Stewart|Somersett case]] in 1772, in which a fugitive slave was freed with the judgement that slavery did not exist under [[English common law]], helped launch the British movement to abolish slavery.<ref>Wise, Steven M., ''Though the Heavens May Fall: The Landmark Trial that Led to the End of Human Slavery'', Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press, 2005.</ref> Though anti-slavery sentiments were widespread by the late 18th century, many colonies and emerging nations continued to use [[slave labour]]: [[Dutch Empire|Dutch]], [[French colonial empire|French]], [[British Empire|British]], [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]], and [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] territories in the West Indies, South America, and the Southern United States. After the [[American Revolution]] established the United States, many Loyalists who fled the Northern United States immigrated to the British province of Quebec, bringing an English majority population as well as many slaves, leading the province to ban the institution in 1793 (see [[slavery in canada|Slavery in Canada]]). In the U.S., Northern states, [[An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery|beginning with Pennsylvania]] in 1780, passed legislation during the next two decades abolishing slavery, sometimes by [[Gradual emancipation (United States)|gradual emancipation]]. Vermont, which was excluded from the thirteen colonies, existed as an independent state from 1777 to 1791. Vermont abolished adult slavery in 1777. In other states, such as Virginia, similar declarations of rights were interpreted by the courts as not applicable to Africans and African Americans. During the following decades, the abolitionist movement grew in northern states, and Congress heavily regulated the expansion of Slave or Free States in new territories admitted to the union (see [[Missouri compromise]]).

In 1787, the [[Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade]] was formed in London. [[French Revolution|Revolutionary France]] abolished slavery throughout its empire through the [[Law of 4 February 1794]], but [[Napoleon]] [[Law of 20 May 1802|restored it in 1802]] as part of a program to ensure sovereignty over its colonies.  On March 16, 1792, Denmark became the first country to issue a decree to abolish their [[Danish slave trade|transatlantic slave trade]] from the start of 1803.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://aaregistry.org/story/denmark-abolishes-slavery/|title=Denmark Abolishes Slavery|website=African American Registry}}</ref> However, Denmark would not abolish slavery in the Danish West Indies until 1848.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/historical-themes/danish-colonies/the-danish-west-indies/the-abolition-of-slavery/|title=The Abolition of Slavery|website=National Museum of Denmark}}</ref> Haiti (then Saint-Domingue) formally [[History of Haiti|declared independence from France]] in 1804 and became the first nation in the [[Western Hemisphere]] to permanently eliminate slavery in the modern era, following the [[1804 Haitian revolution]].<ref name="The Washington Post">{{cite web |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/07/12/haiti-was-first-nation-permanently-ban-slavery/ |title=Haiti was the first nation to permanently ban slavery |publisher=Gaffield, Julia|access-date=15 July 2020}}</ref> The northern states in the U.S. all abolished slavery by 1804. The trade of slaves was made illegal throughout the British Empire by 1937, with Nigeria and Bahrain being the last British territories to abolish slavery.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Nwaubani |first=Adaobi Tricia |date=2018-07-15 |title=My Great-Grandfather, the Nigerian Slave-Trader |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/my-great-grandfather-the-nigerian-slave-trader |access-date=2025-02-03 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The abolition of the slave trade in southeastern Nigeria, 1885-1950 {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/256735611 |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=search.worldcat.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Northrup |first=David |date=September 2007 |title=A. E. Afigbo. The Abolition of the Slave Trade in Southeastern Nigeria. 1885-1950. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2006. Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora. xv + 210 pp. Maps. Appendixes. Bibliography. Index. $75.00. Cloth. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/abs/a-e-afigbo-the-abolition-of-the-slave-trade-in-southeastern-nigeria-18851950-rochester-university-of-rochester-press-2006-rochester-studies-in-african-history-and-the-diaspora-xv-210-pp-maps-appendixes-bibliography-index-7500-cloth/7279CB1095BDD89AD84EACAA5AAA42CC |journal=African Studies Review |language=en |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=228–229 |doi=10.1353/arw.2007.0116 |issn=0002-0206}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Miers |first=Suzanne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zZk9Y-HTQzcC&q=1926+Slavery+Convention |title=Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem |date=2003 |publisher=Rowman Altamira |isbn=978-0-7591-0340-5 |pages=265–67 |language=en}}</ref>

===Development===
The last known form of enforced servitude of adults ([[villein]]age) had disappeared in England by the beginning of the 17th century. In 1569 a court considered the case of Cartwright, who had bought a slave from Russia. The court ruled English law could not recognize slavery, as it was never established officially. This ruling was overshadowed by later developments; It was upheld in 1700 by the Lord Chief Justice [[John Holt (Lord Chief Justice)|John Holt]] when he ruled that a slave became free as soon as he arrived in England.<ref>V.C.D. Mtubani, [http://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/African%20Journals/pdfs/PULA/pula003002/pula003002007.pdf "African Slaves and English Law"], ''PULA Botswana Journal of African Studies'', Vol. 3, No. 2, November 1983. Retrieved 24 February 2011.</ref> During the [[English Civil Wars]] of the mid-seventeenth century, sectarian radicals challenged slavery and other threats to personal freedom. Their ideas influenced many antislavery thinkers in the eighteenth century.<ref name="lorenzo et al">{{Citation| last1  = Di Lorenzo| first1 = A| last2  = Donoghue| first2 = J| display-authors = et al| title   = Abolition and Republicanism over the Transatlantic Long Term, 1640–1800|url=https://journals.openedition.org/lrf/1690 | journal = La Révolution Française| issue = 11| year = 2016| doi = 10.4000/lrf.1690| doi-access = free}}</ref>

In addition to English colonists importing slaves to the North American colonies, by the 18th century, traders began to import slaves from Africa, India and East Asia (where they were trading) to [[London]] and [[Edinburgh]] to work as personal servants. Men who migrated to the North American colonies often took their East Indian slaves or servants with them, as [[Indian people|East Indians]] have been documented in colonial records.<ref>Paul Heinegg, [http://www.freeafricanamericans.com ''Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware'', 1999–2005], "Weaver Family: Three members of the Weaver family, probably brothers, were called 'East Indians' in Lancaster County, [VA] [court records] between 1707 and 1711." "'The indenture of Indians (Native Americans) as servants was not common in Maryland&nbsp;... the indenture of East Indian servants was more common." Retrieved 15 February 2008.</ref><ref>Francis C. Assisi, {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110515191635/http://www.indolink.com/Analysis/a121403-021037.php "First Indian-American Identified: Mary Fisher, Born 1680 in Maryland"]}}, IndoLink, Quote: "Documents available from American archival sources of the colonial period now confirm the presence of indentured servants or slaves who were brought from the Indian subcontinent, via England, to work for their European American masters." Retrieved 20 April 2010.</ref>

Some of the first [[freedom suits]], court cases in the British Isles to challenge the legality of slavery, took place in Scotland in 1755 and 1769. The cases were ''Montgomery v. Sheddan'' (1755) and ''Spens v. Dalrymple'' (1769). Each of the slaves had been baptized in Scotland and challenged the legality of slavery. They set the precedent of legal procedure in British courts that would later lead to successful outcomes for the plaintiffs. In these cases, deaths of the plaintiff and defendant, respectively, brought an end before court decisions.<ref name="The National Archives of Scotland">{{cite web |url=http://www.nas.gov.uk/about/071022.asp |title=Slavery, freedom or perpetual servitude? – the Joseph Knight case |publisher=[[National Archives of Scotland]] |access-date=27 November 2010 |archive-date=27 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927211836/http://www.nas.gov.uk/about/071022.asp |url-status=dead }}</ref>

African slaves were not bought or sold in London but were brought by masters from other areas. Together with people from other nations, especially non-Christian, Africans were considered foreigners, not able to be English subjects. At the time, England had no [[naturalization]] procedure. The African slaves' legal status was unclear until 1772 and [[Somersett's Case]], when the fugitive slave James Somersett forced a decision by the courts. Somersett had escaped, and his master, Charles Steuart, had him captured and imprisoned on board a ship, intending to ship him to [[Jamaica]] to be resold into slavery. While in London, Somersett had been [[baptism|baptized]]; three godparents issued a writ of ''[[habeas corpus]]''. As a result, [[William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield|Lord Mansfield]], Chief Justice of the [[Court of King's Bench (England)|Court of the King's Bench]], had to judge whether Somersett's abduction was lawful or not under English [[Common Law]]. No legislation had ever been passed to establish slavery in England. The case received national attention, and five advocates supported the action on behalf of Somersett.

In his judgment of 22 June 1772, Mansfield declared:

<blockquote>The state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political, but only by positive law, which preserves its force long after the reasons, occasions, and time itself from whence it was created, is erased from memory. It is so odious, that nothing can be suffered to support it, but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from a decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or approved by the law of England; and therefore the black must be discharged.<ref>Frederick Charles Moncrieff, ''The Wit and Wisdom of the Bench and Bar'', The Lawbook Exchange, 2006, pp. 85–86.</ref></blockquote>

[[File:Olaudah Equiano, frontpiece from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.png|thumb|left|upright=0.8|[[Olaudah Equiano]] was a member of an abolitionist group of prominent free Africans living in Britain, and he was active among leaders of the anti-slave trade movement in the 1780s.]]

Although the [[Slavery at common law|exact legal implications]] of the judgement are unclear when analysed by lawyers, the judgement was generally taken at the time to have determined that slavery did not exist under English common law and was thus prohibited in England.<ref>Mowat, Robert Balmain, ''History of the English-Speaking Peoples'', Oxford University Press, 1943, p. 162.</ref> The decision did not apply to the British overseas territories; by then, for example, the American colonies had established slavery by positive laws.<ref>MacEwen, Martin, ''Housing, Race and Law: The British Experience'', Routledge, 2002, p. 39.</ref> Somersett's case became a significant part of the common law of slavery in the English-speaking world and it helped launch the movement to abolish slavery.<ref>Peter P. Hinks, John R. McKivigan, R. Owen Williams, ''Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007, p. 643.</ref>

After reading about Somersett's Case, [[Joseph Knight (slave)|Joseph Knight]], an enslaved African who had been purchased by his master John Wedderburn in Jamaica and brought to Scotland, left him. Married and with a child, he filed a [[freedom suit]], on the grounds that he could not be held as a slave in [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]]. In the case of ''[[Knight v. Wedderburn]]'' (1778), Wedderburn said that Knight owed him "perpetual servitude". The [[Court of Session]] of Scotland ruled against him, saying that [[chattel slavery]] was not recognized under the [[law of Scotland]], and slaves could seek court protection to leave a master or avoid being forcibly removed from Scotland to be returned to slavery in the colonies.<ref name="The National Archives of Scotland"/>

[[File:The Anti-Slavery Society Convention, 1840 by Benjamin Robert Haydon.jpg|thumb|250px|The painting of the 1840 [[Anti-Slavery Convention]] at Exeter Hall.<ref>[http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait.php?search=ap&npgno=599&eDate=&lDate=The Anti-Slavery Society Convention, 1840], [[Benjamin Robert Haydon]], 1841, London, Given by [[Anti-Slavery International|British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society]] in 1880</ref>]]

But at the same time, legally mandated, [[hereditary]] slavery of Scots persons in Scotland had existed from 1606<ref>{{Cite book
| editor-last=Brown
| editor-first=K.M.
| location=St. Andrews
| date=2007
| publisher=[[University of St. Andrews]]
| contribution=Regarding colliers and salters (ref: 1605/6/39)
| contribution-url=http://www.rps.ac.uk/search.php?action=fc&fn=jamesvi_trans&id=id7107
| title=The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707
| display-editors=etal
| access-date=6 August 2009
| archive-date=11 May 2011
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511230622/http://www.rps.ac.uk/search.php?action=fc&fn=jamesvi_trans&id=id7107
| url-status=dead
}}</ref> and continued until 1799, when [[coal mining|colliers]] and [[Drysalter|salters]] were [[emancipation|emancipated]] by an act of the [[Parliament of Great Britain]] ([[39 Geo. 3]]. c. 56). Skilled workers, they were restricted to a place and could be sold with the works. A prior law enacted in 1775 ([[15 Geo. 3]]. c. 28) was intended to end what the act referred to as "a state of slavery and bondage",<ref>{{Cite book
|last=May
|first=Thomas Erskine
|author-link=Erskine May, 1st Baron Farnborough
|year=1895
|contribution=Last Relics of Slavery
|contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sCwYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA274
|title=The Constitutional History of England (1760–1860)
|volume=II
|publisher=A.C. Armstrong and Son
|publication-date=1895
|location=New York
|pages=274–275
}}</ref> but that was ineffective, necessitating the 1799 act.

In the 1776 book ''[[The Wealth of Nations]]'', [[Adam Smith]] argued for the abolition of slavery on economic grounds. Smith pointed out that slavery incurred security, housing, and food costs that the use of free labour would not, and opined that free workers would be more productive because they would have personal economic incentives to work harder. The death rate (and thus repurchase cost) of slaves was also high, and people are less productive when not allowed to choose the type of work they prefer, are illiterate, and are forced to live and work in miserable and unhealthy conditions. The free labour markets and international free trade that Smith preferred would also result in different prices and allocations that Smith believed would be more efficient and productive for consumers.

===British Empire===
[[File:Abolition of Slavery The Glorious 1st of August 1838.jpg|thumb|A poster advertising a special chapel service to celebrate the Abolition of Slavery in 1838]]
Prior to the [[American Revolution]], there were few significant initiatives in the American colonies that led to the abolitionist movement. Some Quakers were active. [[Benjamin Kent]] was the lawyer who took on most of the cases of slaves suing their masters for personal illegal enslavement. He was the first lawyer to successfully establish a slave's freedom.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blanck |first1=Emily |title=Forging an American Law of Slavery in Revolutionary South Carolina and Massachusetts |date=2014 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |isbn=9780-820338644 |page=35 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8e-wBAAAQBAJ}}</ref> In addition, Brigadier General [[Samuel Birch (military officer)|Samuel Birch]] created the ''[[Book of Negroes]]'', to establish which slaves were free after the war.

In 1783, an anti-slavery movement began among the British public to end slavery throughout the British Empire.

[[File:Wilberforce john rising.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[William Wilberforce]] (1759–1833), politician and philanthropist who was a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade]]
After the formation of the [[Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade]] in 1787, [[William Wilberforce]] led the cause of abolition through the parliamentary campaign. [[Thomas Clarkson]] became the group's most prominent researcher, gathering vast amounts of data on the trade. One aspect of abolitionism during this period was the effective use of images such as the famous [[Josiah Wedgwood]] "[[Josiah Wedgwood#Abolitionism|Am I Not A Man and a Brother?]]" anti-slavery medallion of 1787. Clarkson described the medallion as "promoting the cause of justice, humanity and freedom".<ref>{{cite web
 |title=Wedgwood
 |url=http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REwedgwood.htm
 |access-date=12 August 2015
 |quote=Thomas Clarkson wrote of the medallion; promoting the cause of justice, humanity and freedom.
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090708094050/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REwedgwood.htm
 |archive-date=8 July 2009
}}</ref><ref>[[Elizabeth McGrath (art historian)|Elizabeth McGrath]] and [[Jean Michel Massing]] (eds), ''The Slave in European Art: From Renaissance Trophy to Abolitionist Emblem'', London, 2012.</ref> The 1792 Slave Trade Bill passed the House of Commons mangled and mutilated by the modifications and amendments of [[William Pitt the Younger|Pitt]], it lay for years, in the House of Lords.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4wcxAQAAMAAJ|title=Parliamentary History|year=1817|page=1293|publisher=Corbett}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NxtDAAAAcAAJ|title=Journal of the House of Lords|year=1790|page=391 to 738|publisher=H.M. Stationery Office 1790}}</ref> Biographer [[William Hague]] considers the unfinished abolition of the slave trade to be Pitt's greatest failure.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2005|loc=p. 589}}</ref> The [[Slave Trade Act 1807]] was passed by the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|British Parliament]] on 25 March 1807, making the slave trade illegal throughout the British Empire.<ref>Clarkson, T., ''History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament'', London, 1808.</ref> Britain used its influence to coerce other countries to agree to [[Abolition of slavery timeline#1800–1829|treaties]] to end their slave trade and allow the Royal Navy to [[Blockade of Africa|seize their slave ships]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Falola|first1=Toyin|last2=Warnock|first2=Amanda|title=Encyclopedia of the middle passage|date=2007|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=978-0-313-33480-1|pages=xxi, xxxiii–xxxiv|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UjRYKePKrB8C&pg=PR21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pdavis.nl/Background.htm|title=William Loney RN – Background|website=www.pdavis.nl}}</ref> Britain enforced the abolition of the trade because the act made trading slaves within British territories illegal. However, the act repealed the [[Amelioration Act 1798]] which attempted to improve conditions for slaves. The end of the slave trade did not end slavery as a whole. Slavery was still a common practice.

[[File:Thomas Clarkson by Carl Frederik von Breda.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Thomas Clarkson]] was the key speaker at the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society's (today known as [[Anti-Slavery International]]) first conference in London, 1840.]]

In the 1820s, the abolitionist movement revived to campaign against the institution of slavery itself. In 1823 the first Anti-Slavery Society, the [[Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions]], was founded. Many of its members had previously campaigned against the slave trade. On 28 August 1833, the [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833]] was passed. It purchased the slaves from their masters and paved the way for the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire by 1838,<ref>Mary Reckord, "The Colonial Office and the Abolition of Slavery." ''Historical Journal'' 14, no. 4 (1971): 723–734. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2638103 online].</ref> after which the first Anti-Slavery Society was wound up.

In 1839, the [[British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society]] was formed by [[Joseph Sturge]], which attempted to outlaw slavery worldwide and also to pressure the government to help enforce the suppression of the slave trade by declaring [[slave traders]] to be pirates. The world's oldest international human rights organization, it continues today as [[Anti-Slavery International]].<ref>[http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160513171717/http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=9462&URL_DO=DO_PRINTPAGE&URL_SECTION=201.html Anti-Slavery International] UNESCO. Retrieved 11 October 2011.</ref> Thomas Clarkson was the key speaker at the [[World Anti-Slavery Convention]] it held in London in 1840.

The trade of slaves was made illegal throughout the British Empire by 1937, with Nigeria and Bahrain being the last British territories to abolish slavery.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Nwaubani |first=Adaobi Tricia |date=2018-07-15 |title=My Great-Grandfather, the Nigerian Slave-Trader |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/my-great-grandfather-the-nigerian-slave-trader |access-date=2025-02-03 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The abolition of the slave trade in southeastern Nigeria, 1885-1950 {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/256735611 |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=search.worldcat.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Northrup |first=David |date=September 2007 |title=A. E. Afigbo. The Abolition of the Slave Trade in Southeastern Nigeria. 1885-1950. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2006. Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora. xv + 210 pp. Maps. Appendixes. Bibliography. Index. $75.00. Cloth. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/abs/a-e-afigbo-the-abolition-of-the-slave-trade-in-southeastern-nigeria-18851950-rochester-university-of-rochester-press-2006-rochester-studies-in-african-history-and-the-diaspora-xv-210-pp-maps-appendixes-bibliography-index-7500-cloth/7279CB1095BDD89AD84EACAA5AAA42CC |journal=African Studies Review |language=en |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=228–229 |doi=10.1353/arw.2007.0116 |issn=0002-0206}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Miers |first=Suzanne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zZk9Y-HTQzcC&q=1926+Slavery+Convention |title=Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem |date=2003 |publisher=Rowman Altamira |isbn=978-0-7591-0340-5 |pages=265–67 |language=en}}</ref>