Why Was Slavery Abolished in 1807/1833?

The Trans-Atlantic hard worker mint which began in the early 16th century, gained strand in the following three centuries and was eventually abolished in the 1800s. By the previous(a) 18th century, the British population began to find the hard worker tack twain morally and financially disagreeable. The four main factors which contributed to the abolition of the striver trade were the campaigns of the white midriff discriminate, the mass meet from the white on the job(p) twelvemonth, the protestations by the grim slaves and the economic impracticality of the trade.The abolition was successful mainly due to the attack of the set class, which surged ahead in its demands for the freedom of the African slaves and was amply support by the other three factors. _____________ One could argue that the white middle class campaigners were the prime influence in the abolition of the slave trade, as they initiated and persisted with the anti-slavery movement.The campaigners ranged from un educate yet enlightened wad like Granville Sharp, done Methodist clerics like George Fox, to established politicians like William Wilberforce. They were appalled at the inhuman sermon meted out to the African slaves and took it upon themselves to fight for their freedom. This contributed greatly to the final abolition of the trade. George Fox, the broach of the movement, founded a group called the Quakers, which comprised of evangelical white campaigners who believed in the Christian determine of equality in the eyes of God.In 1783, they send their archetypal supplicate to the parliament in which they wrote that a earth professing the Christian Faith, should so far counteract the principles of humanity and jurist as by a cruel treatment of this oppressed race, to fill their minds with prejudices against the mild and beneficent doctrines of the church doctrine aiming this argument towards the religious members of sevens. A similar petition was sent to parliament t wo years later.Their speeches, essays and letters conveyed that their fellow-creatures who were held in cruel bondage were authorize to the natural rights of mankind, thereby appealing to the moral passions of both the Parliament and the earth. While the written word was used to persuade the Parliament to pass the bill, the spoken word was used to raise awareness and convince the slew to join the cause. Granville Sharp, a prominent abolitionist, was an apprentice to a Quaker linen draper until he quit after learning nigh the treatment of black slaves. He took up the case of a slave, Jonathan Strong, in 1765.Strong ran extraneous after being brutally beaten by his owner. Sharp was travel by Strongs condition and took the case to court where justice was served to Strong after three years. After the case gained publicity, Sharp became more than involved in the abolition of the slave trade. William Wilberforce, a member of the nursing home of Commons and a famous abolitionist too played an principal(prenominal) role in the campaign as he gave the blacks and the public a voice in the Parliament. He personally knew William Pitt, the prime minister, and therefore had a lot of influence in the Parliament, which helped him gain support for the campaign.In improver to the abolitionists, white working and middle class women involved themselves in the movement. names of Mary Birkett, Hannah More, the writer of the Sorrows of Yamba and Mary Wollstonecraft are worthy of mention. The cause of the slaves gave women the opportunity to stand up for something they believed strongly in. They, along with the men, boycotted slave-grown products like sugar, rum and cotton. That they contributed intimately to this movement is borne out by the fact that 10% of the subscriptions to the Abolition beau monde were women.Art and literature also played an important part in the success of the white middle class campaigns. The middle class targeted the educated and the Parliam ent through art and literature. They argued that poets such(prenominal) as Wordsworth and Coleridge also wrote round slavery in their works. The abolitionists cited poems like William Cowpers The Negros cathexis to convince the Parliament that if enlightened romantics like Cowper and Wordsworth found the slave trade unacceptable, they ought to be interpreted seriously.Josiah Wedgewood, a potter by profession, created the Wedgwood medallion. From 1787 until his death in 1795, Wedgwood actively participated in the abolition of slavery cause. His slave medallion with the inscriptions Am I Not a Man and a Brother, showing a black man in a supplicatory pose attracted the publics attention. It soon became an identity of the campaign and was seen everywhere, on ornaments, tobacco pipes and tomentum cerebri pins. The white middle class campaigners tried to appeal to as some sections of society as possible.Their Christian teachings attracted the evangelicals they gained mass support from the working class with their speeches and introduced the movement to the upper class and Parliament with petitions. They focused on ski tow awareness and their emotional arguments convinced the public to espouse the cause of the slaves. _________________ other factor that greatly affected the abolition of the slave trade was the support of the white working class. Their support was gained through the influence of the white middle class campaigners.The working class took action by signing petitions which were sent to the Parliament. In 1788, over one hundred petitions defending African slaves were presented to the home base of Commons in the span of three months. The sheer number of pack who had signed these put the Parliament under pressure to comply and portray to the masses what they wanted, for fear of revolts and rebellions. The British regime had to manage rebellions in the slave colonies of Barbados, Haiti, Cuba, America and such like and could not afford their own comm unity revolting.The working class used mass support a federal agency of forcing the Parliament to agree to their proposition to abolish slavery. In Manchester in 1778, 10,000 people signed a petition to the Parliament and one year later, an special 10 thousand people signed yet another petition. In 1792, 592 letters and proposals were sent to the Government, once again urging them to take proactive measures. _______________ Because of the vital role the African slaves played in the struggle for their freedom, it could be said that their influence was most crucial to the abolition of the slave trade.Their discontentedness and rebellions pushed the Parliament to consider abolition of this trade. They resisted capture and imprisonment and black mutinies, such as the infamous mutiny on the ship Amistad which carried black slaves, were not an uncommon occurrence. Many pregnant slaves preferred abortion to giving stomach to a chattel slave. Very few people in Britain knew about the ma ltreatment of slaves until some slaves like Olaudah Equiano bought their freedom and spoke of their wretched lives in the colonies.Equiano wrote an autobiography titled The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African in which he exposed the atrocities perpetrated on slaves, including the mass killing on the slave ship Zong. The impression he made on the British populace inspired many other black slaves to revolt and acquire their freedom. Toussaint Louverture, another slave, rebelled against authorities by leading the Haitian Revolutions which put a lot of pressure on the Parliament which feared a chain answer of similar events.The Parliament could not, however, take action because they had not yet taken a legal stance on the trade. No laws or bills had been passed to allow the slave trade, nor had any been proposed to abolish it. The Parliament had to make a decision, which they did in 1807, and their choice to abolish the slave trade was influenced greatly by the riots and rebellions of the African slaves. _________________ In addition to reasons cited above, the economic impracticality of continuing with the slave trade contributed to its abolition, although it was comparatively less important.With America becoming independent in 1776, it was no chronic obliged to trade with British sugar colonies such as Barbados and Jamaica, and or else traded with the French and the Dutch. The import of sugar in Britain also decreased dramatically and was replaced by cotton, causing the textile industry during industrial Revolution to flourish. The Industrial revolution which began in 1750 and picked up pace by the early 1800s relied on the growth of technology, therefore making manual labour redundant.These economic reasons in the end gave everyone a reason to abolish the slave trade and therefore, in 1807 the first bill against slavery was passed. ________________ Of the four factors that spurred the Parliament to abolish slavery, the campaigns made by the white middle class were most important. The revolution was sparked off by the campaigners efforts to raise awareness of the condition of the slaves. Although the slave expressed their discontentment through revolts, they did not ruffle the feathers of the Parliament.It was not until the middle class protested against the practice that the Parliament considered abolition of the slave trade. It was the middle class campaigning that not whole emboldened the black slaves to step up the intensity of their protests, but also swept up the support and empathy of the working class for the cause. The middle class, headed by Wilberforce, also submitted petitions to the Parliament, making them aware of the demands of the public. The middle class campaigning, however, could not prolong achieved what they did without the support of the masses and the persistence f the black slaves. The fact that the slave trade was not economically viable too was important and ultimately gave the Parliament a reason to abolish the slave trade. The Parliament had bantam to lose and could also support a movement that sweeping the nation and therefore, the economic factors created a big change in the Parliaments final decision to abolish slavery, but had the white middle class campaigners not initiated the movement, slavery may take over taken a easily long time to be eridicated and this abhorrent practice may have still been alive today.The efforts of the white middle class campaigners, the empathy of the white working class, the perseverant struggles of the African slaves and the realization by the Parliament of the economic futility of continuing with the slave trade bore fruit and the abolition act of 1833 was passed.