Abolition of Negro Slavery--Canning's Resolutions of
1823--Insurrection in Demerara--"Missionary Smith's
Case"--Immediate Abolition--Elizabeth
Heyrick--O'Connell--Brougham's Celebrated Speech of
1830--Insurrection and Anarchy in Jamaica, in 1832--William
Knibb--Parliamentary Inquiry--Buxton--The Apprenticeship Adopted,
August, 1833--Result of Complete Emancipation in Antigua--The
Apprenticeship Doomed--The Colonies themselves Terminate it, August
1, 1838.
Dickens, in his Martin Chuzzlewit, records, that Miss Charity Pecksniff,
being told her side face was much better-looking than the front view,
ever after, when visited by her not very numerous suitors, presented her
profile to their admiring gaze. The tribute which Great Britain has paid
to the genius of Humanity, by her efforts and sacrifices for the
abolition of the African Slave Trade and Negro Slavery, is the aspect in
which she delights to be contemplated by other nations. The humblest
Englishman is proud to reiterate the sentiment, uttered half a century
ago by Curran: "I speak in the spirit of our Constitution, which makes
Liberty commensurate with and inseparable from our soil; which
proclaims, even to the stranger and the sojourner, the moment he sets
his foot upon our native earth, that the ground he treads is holy, and
consecrated by the genius of Universal Emancipation. No matter in what
language his doom may have been pronounced; no matter what complexion,
incompatible with freedom, an Indian or an African sun may have burnt
upon him; no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty may have been
cloven down; no matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted
on the altar of slavery: the first moment he touches our sacred soil,
the altar and the god sink together in the dust; his soul walks abroad
in her own majesty; his body swells beyond the measure of his chains,
that burst around him; and he stands redeemed, regenerated, and
disenthralled, by the irresistible genius of Universal Emancipation."
The services and victories of Sharpe, Clarkson, Wilberforce, Stephen,
Brougham, Macaulay, Buxton, Cropper, Lushington, Gurney, Sturge,
O'Connell, Mackintosh, Thompson, Wardlaw, Scoble, and their
fellow-laborers, in this department of philanthropy, mitigate the
abhorrence with which Christendom views the continued oppressions of
millions of British subjects in both hemispheres.
After the abolition of the slave trade, the attention of a few
thoughtful and humane persons was turned toward slavery itself, of which
the trade was only an incident. Public sentiment was gradually enlisted,
till, in 1823, it had become sufficiently aroused to cause the passage,
in Parliament, of Mr. Canning's celebrated resolutions, declaring the
expediency of adopting decisive measures for meliorating the condition
of the slave population in the Colonies, preparatory to their complete
emancipation. A ministerial circular was sent to the Colonies, directing
the authorities to act upon those resolutions in the future treatment of
the slave population. But, as was predicted by those who had studied the
genius of Slavery, the resolutions and circular were either
contemptuously defied, coolly disregarded, or courteously evaded by the
Colonies.
The latter part of the same year, an insurrection broke out in Demerara.
The infuriated planters undertook to trace its origin to the religious
teachings of a venerable English missionary of most pure and exemplary
character, Rev. John Smith. He was seized, and, after resisting some
attempts to extort confessions, and going through a trial in which the
very semblance of justice was outraged, was convicted, and sentenced to
death. In feeble health, he was thrown into a small and loathsome
dungeon, where, after several weeks of intense suffering, he died. This
attempt to
"----bring back
The Hall of Horrors, and the assessor's pen
Recording answers shrieked upon the rack,"
produced a tremendous sensation in England. Early in June, Mr. Brougham
introduced into Parliament a motion to censure the Government and Court
of Demerara. A debate of surpassing interest followed, in which he
supported his motion by two powerful speeches. It was on this occasion
that Mr. Wilberforce made his last speech in Parliament. The motion was
lost by a small majority.
These proceedings, touching a case of individual outrage, are worthy of
special note, because they aroused a spirit in England that would never
"down," till the last chain was stricken from the last slave. "The
Missionary Smith's Case" became a rallying cry with all the friends of
religious freedom, and all the enemies of West India slavery. The
measures of the Abolitionists became more bold--their principles
commanded a more general concurrence--those who voted against the motion
of Mr. Brougham were either excluded from the next Parliament, or
obtained their seats with extreme difficulty; and, to quote from the
preface to Mr. B.'s speeches, "All men now saw that the warning given in
the peroration of the latter, though sounded in vain across the Atlantic
Ocean, was echoing with a loudness redoubled with each repetition
through the British isles; that it had rung the knell of the system; and
that at the fetters of the slave a blow was at length struck, which
must, if followed up, make them fall off his limbs forever."
The year 1830 was memorable for a great advance in the principles of the
Abolitionists, and the influence they exerted on public opinion. The
doctrine of _immediate_ as opposed to _gradual_ abolition, had been set
forth in a well-reasoned pamphlet, published anonymously, in 1824,
which was afterward found to have been written by Elizabeth Heyrick, of
Leicester. It now became the watchword of the Anti-Slavery Societies,
their publications and orators. The anniversary meeting of the
metropolitan association in this year was addressed by some of the most
distinguished men in the kingdom. It was on this occasion that Daniel
O'Connell uttered the noble and comprehensive sentiment--"I am for
speedy, immediate abolition. I care not what caste, creed, or color,
Slavery may assume. I am for its total, its instant abolition. Whether
it be personal or political, mental or corporeal, intellectual or
spiritual, I am for its immediate abolition. I enter into no compromise
with Slavery; I am for justice, in the name of humanity, and according
to the law of the living God."
In July of the same year, Mr. Brougham introduced his motion in the
Commons, just before the dissolution, pledging the House to take the
subject of Abolition into consideration early the next session. His
speech in its support, and which essentially contributed to his election
for Yorkshire a few weeks afterward, as the successor of Wilberforce,
contains the oft-cited passage: "I trust that at length the time is come
when Parliament will no longer bear to be told that slave-owners are the
best lawgivers on Slavery; no longer allow an appeal from the British
public to such communities as those in which the Smiths and the
Grimsdalls are persecuted to death for teaching the gospel to the
negroes; and the Mosses holden in affectionate respect for torture and
murder: no longer suffer our voice to roll across the Atlantic in empty
warnings and fruitless orders. Tell me not of rights--talk not of the
property of the planter in his slaves. I deny the right--I acknowledge
not the property. The principles, the feelings of our common nature rise
in rebellion against it. Be the appeal made to the understanding, or to
the heart, the sentence is the same that rejects it. In vain you tell me
of laws that sanction such a crime! There is a law above all the
enactments of human codes--the same throughout the world--the same in
all times--such as it was before the daring genius of Columbus pierced
the night of ages, and opened to one world the sources of power, wealth,
and knowledge; to another, all unutterable woes: such as it is at this
day. It is the law written by the finger of God on the heart of man; and
by that law unchangeable and eternal, while men despise fraud, and
loathe rapine, and abhor blood, they will reject with indignation the
wild and guilty fantasy, that man can hold property in man! In vain you
appeal to treaties, to covenants between nations: the Covenants of the
Almighty, whether the Old Covenant or the New, denounce such unholy
pretensions. To those laws did they of old refer, who maintained the
African trade. Such treaties did they cite, and not untruly; for by one
shameful compact you bartered the glories of Blenheim for the traffic in
blood. Yet, despite of law and of treaty, that infernal traffic is now
destroyed, and its votaries put to death like other pirates. How came
this change to pass? Not, assuredly, by Parliament leading the way; but
the country at length awoke; the indignation of the people was kindled;
it descended in thunder, and smote the traffic, and scattered its guilty
profits to the winds. Now, then, let the planters beware--let their
Assemblies beware--let the Government at home beware--let the Parliament
beware! The same country is once more awake--awake to the condition of
negro slavery; the same indignation kindles in the bosom of the same
people; the same cloud is gathering that annihilated the slave trade;
and, if it shall descend again, they on whom its crash may fall, will
not be destroyed before I have warned them; but I pray that their
destruction may turn away from us the more terrible judgments of God!"
The French revolution of 1830, the turning out of the Wellington and the
coming in of the Grey Ministry, and the protracted contest for
Parliamentary reform, absorbed a large share of the public attention for
the next eighteen months. Meanwhile, the Abolitionists, taking
advantage of the liberal tendencies of the times, gathered strength by
agitating the country through numerous publications and addresses, from
some of the most able pens and eloquent tongues in the kingdom.
In 1831-2, an outbreak in Jamaica inflamed the already excited mind of
England to an unusual pitch. An attempt to deprive some of the negroes
of their wonted Christmas holidays, conspired with a report that
Parliament had abolished slavery, to provoke a revolt. The masters fled,
the troops interfered and slaughtered a large number of the insurgents,
leaving the courts to put to death a few hundred in a more leisurely
way. Not content with this, the planters glutted their vengeance by
pulling down several chapels of the Baptist and Independent
missionaries--forbidding meetings for religious worship in which slaves
participated--driving some of the ministers to the mountains, and
hunting them like beasts of prey--throwing others into prison--whilst a
more fortunate few escaped to England. Among the latter was the Rev.
William Knibb, a Baptist preacher of heroic courage, commanding person
and vigorous eloquence. Arriving in the mother country in June, 1832, he
perambulated the island, and in conjunction with the more learned and
brilliant George Thompson, now member of Parliament, who was then
employed as an Anti-Slavery lecturer, stirred the national heart to its
core.
Parliament was not idle. In May, of this year, the West Indian interest
in the House of Lords procured the appointment of a committee of inquiry
into the state of the islands. It was mainly composed of opponents of
Abolition. The friends of liberty in the Commons, alarmed at this
hostile proceeding, obtained, through their leader, Mr. T. Fowell
Buxton, a committee to consider the expediency of abolishing slavery in
the islands. Mr. Buxton was chairman of the committee. These two
committees were in session when the exiled Jamaica missionaries
arrived. They were examined as witnesses, with some sixty others,
representing both sides of the question--the inquiry extending through
nearly three months. The result was, an overwhelming case against
slavery. Both parties now girded themselves for the contest. The
Ministry of Earl Grey had recently carried the Reform bill. It was a
favorable moment for the friends of freedom to strike. Early in the
session of 1833, Mr. Buxton was about to bring forward a motion for the
immediate abolition of slavery, when Mr. Stanley, the Colonial
Secretary, superseded him, by pledging ministers to introduce a measure,
without delay, which "should be safe and satisfactory to all parties."
Mr. Stanley brought out the Government plan of abolition, on the 14th of
May, 1833. Good, genial, and unsuspecting Mr. Buxton now wished he had
kept the work in his own hands. Stanley's bill bore the stereotyped
ministerial stamp. It was a compromise between what justice demanded and
what oppression would grant. It immediately emancipated all slaves under
six years of age; and subjected house servants to an apprenticeship of
four years, and agricultural servants of six years, to their former
masters; and gave to the latter a compensation of L20,000,000. At the
end of the apprenticeship, the negroes were to be completely free.
Leading Abolitionists denounced the scheme, compelled ministers to
reduce the period of apprenticeship from twelve (as first proposed) to
four and six years, protested against compensation; but, fearful of
losing the boon, the majority finally yielded their opposition. In
Parliament, the measure was discussed to its dregs; the friends of
immediate Abolition striving to remedy its defects--the West India
interest contesting every clause and comma with heroic pertinacity.
After vast rhetorical displays on all sides, with much patience and
philanthropy on one, and a good deal of bad temper and bad ethics,
mingled with prophecies of bankruptcy and bloodshed on the other, the
bill became a law on the 28th day of August, 1833. Mr. O'Connell voted
against it, on the two grounds, that it did not give immediate freedom
to the slaves, whilst it gave compensation to the masters.
In its actual workings, the apprenticeship realized most of the
objections made to it by the Abolitionists, and few of the horrible
forebodings of their opponents. The instant transition of 800,000 slaves
into _quasi_ freemen was not attended by any disorder whatever. And
during the four years which the ill-contrived scheme lasted, not a drop
of blood was shed; crimes of all grades diminished; vagrancy seldom
showed its head; property was respected; the adults banished many of
those domestic vices incident to a state of slavery; the children filled
the schools; and this class of West India society rose in the scale of
civilization and morals. And even after the forts were dismantled, and
the troops sent away to prevent an insurrection among the whites of
Canada, the Anglo-Saxons in the Caribbean Isles slept on quiet pillows.
But, though a heaven-wide remove from slavery, the apprenticeship was
not a paradise to the parties. The dissonance was inherent in the nature
of the plan. Looking to harmonious results, it gave the planters too
much power, or too little; the negroes too much liberty, or too little.
The consequence was, interminable disputes between masters and
apprentices; between planters and special justices; between the Home
Government and the Colonial authorities. The majority of the justices,
who had the chief agency in executing the Abolition act, endeavored to
do it in its humane spirit. But too many of them could not withstand the
seductive wit and wine of a class, whose chivalry and hospitality are
proverbial wherever unpaid labor has shed its liberalizing influences.
Antigua and the Bermudas discarded the apprenticeship, and adopted
complete abolition, the Act giving to the Colonies the alternative.
Experience justified the wisdom of their choice. They reaped all the
good fruits of the apprenticeship, and none of the bad. Messrs. Thome
and Kimball, of this country, visited Antigua, Barbadoes, and Jamaica,
in 1837. From their admirable "Six Months Tour," I quote the following
description of the "immediate" conversion to men, of 30,000 slaves of
Antigua, on the 1st of August, 1834:
"For some time previous to the 1st of August, forebodings of
disaster lowered over the island. The day was fixed! Thirty
thousand degraded human beings were to be brought forth from the
dungeon of slavery, and 'turned loose on the community,' and this
was to be done 'in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye!' Gloomy
apprehensions were entertained by many of the planters. Some
timorous families did not go to bed on the night of the 31st of
July; fear drove sleep from their eyes, and they awaited with
fluttering pulse the hour of midnight, fearing lest the same bell
which sounded the jubilee of the slaves might toll the death-knell
of the masters. Several American vessels which had lain for weeks
in the harbor weighed anchor on the 31st of July, and made their
escape, through actual fear that the island would be destroyed on
the following day. * * * The Wesleyans kept 'watch night' in all
their chapels on the night of the 31st. At St. John's, the spacious
building was filled with the candidates for liberty. All was
animation and eagerness. A mighty chorus of voices swelled the song
of expectation and joy, and, as they united in prayer, the voice of
the leader was drowned in universal acclamations of thanksgiving,
and praise, and blessing, and honor, and glory to God, who had come
down for their deliverance. In such exercises the evening was spent
until the hour of twelve approached. The missionary then proposed
that, when the clock on the cathedral should begin to strike, the
whole congregation should fall upon their knees, and receive the
boon of freedom in silence. Accordingly, as the loud bell tolled
its first note, the immense assembly fell prostrate on their knees.
All was silence, save the quivering half-stifled breath of the
struggling spirit. The slow notes of the clock fell upon the
multitude; peal on peal, peal on peal, rolled over the prostrate
throng, in tones of angels' voices, thrilling among the desolate
chords and weary heart-strings. Scarce had the clock sounded its
last note, when the lightning flashed vividly around, and a loud
peal of thunder roared along the sky--God's pillar of fire and
trump of jubilee! A moment of profoundest silence passed--then
came the _burst_--they broke forth in prayer; they shouted, they
sung, 'Glory,' 'alleluia;' they clapped their hands, leaped up,
fell down, clasped each other in their free arms, cried, laughed,
went to and fro, tossing upward their unfettered hands; but high
above the whole there was a mighty sound, which ever and anon
swelled up; it was the utterings in broken negro dialect of
gratitude to God."
The experiment of immediate abolition in Antigua and the Bermudas, and
of the apprenticeship in the other Colonies, has established the
following facts: That, while melioration is a great improvement on
chattel slavery, yet immediate and complete emancipation is far
preferable: That either change is safe to the person and property of the
master: That, for either, it is rather the master than the slave who
needs preparation.
Considerations of principle, uniting with a mass of facts showing the
superiority of immediate emancipation over the apprenticeship, induced
the Abolitionists of England, in 1836-7, to take a final stand for the
complete disenthralment of the negro. A numerous Convention of delegates
met in London, in November, 1837; resolved that the apprenticeship
should cease on or before the first of August, 1838; memorialized the
Government against its continuance; and, through a deputation, waited on
the Colonial Secretary, to enforce their appeal. They were coldly, not
to say contemptuously, treated by Lord Glenelg. After selecting a
Central Committee, to watch the Ministry and Parliament, the delegates
went home to agitate the country. Thompson, Wardlaw, Smeal, and their
coadjutors, aroused Scotland; whilst Sturge, Buxton, Scoble, and their
friends, shook England. In the course of the fall and winter, petitions
poured into Parliament in unprecedented numbers, whilst seven hundred
thousand women presented their prayer to the Queen in behalf of her
oppressed female subjects in the Western isles.
Parliament began to move. On the 20th of February, 1838, Lord Brougham,
in presenting a petition from Glasgow and vicinity, signed by upwards
of 100,000 persons, moved a series of resolutions for the speedy
termination of the apprenticeship, supporting them by a speech worthy of
his brightest fame, and whose immediate publication produced a deep
impression upon the country. I cannot forbear quoting the closing
paragraph of the peroration.
Said Lord Brougham:
"So now the fullness of time is come for at length discharging our
duty to the African captive. I have demonstrated to you that
everything is ordered--every previous step taken--all safe, by
experience shown to be all safe, for the long-desired consummation.
The time has come, the trial has been made, the hour is striking:
you have no longer a pretext for hesitation, or faltering, or
delay. The slave has shown, by four years' blameless behavior and
devotion to the pursuits of peaceful industry, that he is as fit
for his freedom as any English peasant--aye, or any lord whom I now
address. I demand his rights; I demand his liberty without stint.
In the name of justice and of law, in the name of reason, in the
name of God, who has given you no right to work injustice, I demand
that your brother be no longer trampled upon as your slave! I make
my appeal to the Commons, who represent the free people of England,
and I require at their hands the performance of that condition for
which they paid so enormous a price--that condition which all their
constituents are in breathless anxiety to see fulfilled! I appeal
to this House. Hereditary judges of the first tribunal in the
world, to you I appeal for justice! Patrons of all the arts that
humanize mankind, under your protection I place humanity herself!
To the merciful Sovereign of a free people, I call aloud for mercy
to the hundreds of thousands for whom half a million of her
Christian sisters have cried aloud; I ask that their cry may not
have risen in vain. But first I turn my eye to the Throne of all
Justice, and devoutly humbling myself before Him who is of purer
eyes than to behold such vast iniquities, I implore that the curse
hovering over the head of the unjust and oppressor be averted from
us--that your hearts may be turned to mercy--and that over all the
earth His will may at length be done."
On the 29th of March, Sir George Strickland brought forward a motion in
the Commons, for the termination of the apprenticeship on the 1st of
August following. Ministers resisted, and it was lost. While the motion
was pending, two large anti-slavery conventions met in London, and soon
afterwards five thronged meetings were held in Exeter Hall, in whose
proceedings Brougham, Buxton, O'Connell, and other distinguished men,
played a prominent part. The obstinate course of the Cabinet had not
only exasperated public opinion at home, but had produced a feverish
excitement amongst the apprentices in the Colonies.
In the midst of this furious contest, whose issue was shrouded in
darkness, light suddenly broke in from an unexpected quarter. Lo! a
ministerial dispatch, dated the very day after the November convention
met, appeared in the West India newspapers, addressed to the Colonial
Governors, in which Lord Glenelg informed them that agitation had again
commenced, and would no doubt go on as before, and urging them to
impress on the Legislatures the necessity of doing for themselves, and
in season, what the people of England were seeking to compel the
Parliament to do for them. Thus the Cabinet, while presenting a bold
front at home, was saving its life by indirectly and secretly doing the
work Abolitionists were forcing it to perform.
Simultaneously with the arrival in England of the journals containing
copies of the dispatch, came the news, that the two small islands of
Montserrat and Nevis had yielded to the ministerial solicitation, and
resolved to emancipate their apprentices on the 1st of August. Other
small islands soon copied their example. Barbadoes, with her 83,000
apprentices, followed in the train. Then came Jamaica, with her 330,000.
This settled the question. Other Colonies now gave way, and ministers
pledged themselves that all should be completed by the appointed day. It
was done--the Cabinet averted an inglorious defeat--the planters escaped
a hurricane of violence in a dark night of negro insurrection--and, on
the first day of August, 1838, the friends of emancipation assembled in
all parts of the Empire, to render thanksgiving to God for the final
overthrow of British negro slavery.
The great work of 1834 and 1838, which we have hastily scanned, was
accomplished by the People, and not by the Government; by the Democracy,
as distinguished from the Aristocracy--the latter moving only when
impelled by the former. Of political parties, the large share of
Abolitionists came from the liberals. Of religious sects, the most
active were the Friends, the Baptists, and the Independents. The cry
occasionally heard in this country, that the abolition of West India
Slavery was intended to be an indirect blow at American republicanism,
is the shallow cant of owlish ignorance or demagogical hypocrisy. The
Englishmen who bore a prominent part in the Abolition cause, generally
admire our free institutions, and are now efficient laborers in those
reforms which aim to cripple the power of the privileged orders, to
prevent class legislation, and to secure the equal rights of the masses
of their countrymen.
The conduct of the emancipated negroes during the last ten years has
justified the eulogium pronounced upon them by Lord Brougham, in the
last of the two quotations from him. The magistrate has driven out the
overseer; the school has taken the place of the whipping-post; the press
has supplanted the tread-mill. It is said that the large landed estates
are diminishing in value; that the quantity of sugar, coffee, and rum,
annually produced, decreases; that the negroes are reluctant to labor
upon these large properties, preferring to set up little shops, or work
at trades, or cultivate small grounds on their own account. In the mass
of conflicting testimony, it is difficult to get at the precise facts. I
presume that, to a large extent, these reports are true. Monopolies in
the flesh of man, and in the soil he tills, are at war with Nature and
with God. If they have been long continued, a change will produce some
bitter fruits. But they will be the growth of the evil rather than the
remedy. The tropics belong to the colored race. The Saxon must abandon
the West Indies. His huge landed estates must inevitably continue to
diminish in value till they are broken up into small freeholds, each
being cultivated by its individual owner. Such a consummation will be
deprecated only by those who believe that the chief end of poor men, in
hot climates, is to work as day-laborers, on small wages, for bloated
capitalists, in the production of large quantities of cotton, coffee,
sugar, and rum.