Quakers initiate the abolition movement in Britain
In June 1783, Friends became aware that a Bill relating to the slave trade was before the House of Commons. Friends were at their annual gathering in London, and seizing this opportunity, on June 17 1783 London Yearly Meeting presented to Parliament the first petition against the slave trade signed by 273 Quakers.
The original petition no longer exists, but its text survives in the Yearly Meeting minutes, with a complete list of signatories.
Left: London Yearly Meeting minutes, 1783 [YM/M17 /298-307]
Three days later, Meeting for Sufferings set up a 23-member committee - the Committee on the Slave Trade to 'embrace all opportunities to promote the intention of the Yearly Meeting respecting the slave trade' and 'to obtain and publish "such information as may tend to the abolition of the slave trade'. This committee was Britain's first anti-slavery organisation.
A few weeks later in July 1783 six Friends met informally as a separate group to enlighten the public mind on the slave trade. They did this by sending anti-slavery articles to the newspapers, and lobbying Members of Parliament and other notables.
Cover of minute book of the Meeting for Sufferings Committee
on Slave Trade, 1783 - 1792 [STC/M1]
These Quaker abolitionists were ordinary people, who recognised that the trade was a violation of their fundamental belief in the equality of all human beings - and decided to do something about it. They included a physician, chemist, tinplate worker, printer, conveyancer, linen-bleacher, weaver, woollen draper, maltser, cutler, and surgeon.
William Dillwyn (1743-1824) and John Lloyd (1750-1811) who were members of both the official and informal committees prepared a short address to the public that was published in December 1783 as The Case of our fellow- creatures, the oppressed Africans respectfully recommended to the serious consideration of the legislature of Great Britain by the people called Quakers.
2,000 copies were originally published, and a further 10,000 copies in 1784. It was distributed to every member of parliament, the royal family and other notables, and 'as generally as may be throughout the nation', especially to anyone who might have influence.
Title page of The Case of our Fellow-Creatures,
the Oppressed Africans... 1783 [Box 32 /62]
This series of actions by Quakers - getting articles printed in the press, sending a short address to MPs, and petitioning Parliament were effectively the first organised lobbying activities in Britain for abolition. Unfortunately, they met with limited success, probably because Quakers were still regarded with an element of suspicion. Friends realised they needed to connect with the now growing number of abolitionists from other denominations.
Between 1785 and 1787 the associations between Quakers and Granville Sharp developed, and also with another Anglican, Thomas Clarkson. Anthony Benezet and Granville Sharp already knew each other as they had been in correspondence since 1772 and had re-printed each other's anti-slavery tracts on either side of the Atlantic.
Thomas Clarkson's introduction to the Quaker abolitionists came through Granville Sharp who introduced him to James Phillips, the Quaker printer and a member of the official Quaker committee.
In 1786 the Committee on the Slave Trade agreed to publish the English translation of Clarkson's prize-winning Latin essay, An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly the African, translated from a Latin Dissertation, which was honoured with the first prize in the University of Cambridge, for the year 1785, With additions.
On 22 May 1787 Sharp, Clarkson, another Anglican Philip Sansom, and nine Quakers formed the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade (also known as the Committee for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade). In need of a Parliamentary spokesman, the Evangelical William Wilberforce was approached (Quakers were barred from Parliament until 1828).
Although Wilberforce became the public figurehead of the campaign, it would not have succeeded without the unceasing work of Clarkson (described by Samuel Taylor Coleridge as a "moral steam-engine") who took on the essential task of collecting every possible source of evidence, together with the behind-the-scenes work of Quakers who gave financial support and utilised their network of contacts which helped initiate local activism up and down the country.
Wilberforce introduced his first Bill to abolish the slave trade in 1791, but it was rejected. For the next 20 years he continued regularly to propose legislation, and anti-slavery campaigners continued to fight for abolition. Anti-slavery literature was distributed nationwide and public opinion stirred, a network of anti-slavery societies sprang up all over the country, and petitions were organised and sent to parliament. It was the first time that such community action had lobbied for legislative change.
It goes without saying that many Quakers were involved in these local anti-slavery societies and united with other men and women in their local community to promote the anti-slavery cause.
