How We Learned
that Slavery is Wrong
Alec Ryrie
‘Rebel’ slave,
Surinam,
1796
Benjamin
Lay (16811759),
abolitionist
and eccentric
Some Christians fear that through the
evangelic freedom slavery will
disappear entirely from those colonies
which Christians own, to the great
detriment of the overseers of those
colonies.
Jacobus Capitein, On Slavery (1742)
I am perswaded, that if they whom
thou call’st thy Slaves, be Uprighthearted to God, the Lord God
Almighty will set them Free in a way
that thou knowest not, for there is
none set Free but in Christ Jesus, for
all other Freedom will prove but a
Bondage.
Alice Curwen to Martha Tavenor, 1676
Whether the Creator originally formed
these black people a little lower than
other men, or that they have lost their
intellectual powers through disuse, I
will not assume the province of
determining; but certain it is that a
new Negroe (as those lately imported
from Africa are called) is a complete
definition of indolent stupidity.
Revd William Knox, 1768
Cape Coast castle, where Philip
Quaque ministered 1766-1816
Ernst Heinrich
von
Schimmelmann
(1747-1831),
Danish
abolitionist
Abolition: some key dates
• 1772, Somerset v. Stuart outlaws slavery in
England and Wales
• 1777: Vermont’s constitution prohibits slavery
• 1787: mass petitioning against the slave trade
begins in Britain
• 1792: slave-trade abolition bill passes the House
of Commons, fails in the House of Lords
• 1807: slave trade abolished by both Britain and
the USA
The
Zong
scandal
(1783)
Josiah
Wedgwood,
miniature
c. 1787
Samuel Sharpe
(modern statue
at Montego Bay,
Jamaica)
British abolition
• 1833 Slavery Abolition Act came into force in
1834
• ‘Apprenticeship’ period of 4-6 years, cut short in
1838 by a new Act of Parliament
• Compensation for slave-holders set at £20
million
Frederick Douglass (1818-95)
Tell the mother
to gradually
extricate her babe
from the fire into
which it has
fallen; — but
urge me not to
use moderation
in a cause like the
present.
William Lloyd
Garrison
If God wills that it
continue until all the
wealth piled by the
bondsman’s two
hundred and fifty
years of unrequited
toil shall be sunk, and
until every drop of
blood drawn with the
lash shall be paid by
another drawn with
the sword ...
... as was said three
thousand years ago,
so still it must be said,
‘the judgments of the
Lord are true and
righteous altogether.
Abraham Lincoln,
4 March 1865
Zipha Elaw (c. 1790 –
after 1845)
This poor brother seemed
to manifest an undue
anxiety for his freedom. …
[He] was very impatient of
slavery, and anxiously
sighed for liberty. …
Zipha Elaw (c. 1790 –
after 1845)
… His sighs were heard in
heaven by Him who
looseth the prisoners. … In
the same week he was
taken ill, and finally fell
asleep in Jesus, departing
to be “where the wicked
cease from troubling, and
the weary are at rest”.
How We Learned
that Slavery is Wrong
Alec Ryrie