Abolitionism

THE ABOLITIONIST movement lasted for a century in Western Europe and the Americas and resulted in ending the transatlantic slave trade and the practice of humans owning other humans. Slavery has a long past as an integral part of ancient civilizations. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe abandoned slavery for serfdom. But in 1442, Portuguese ships brought African slaves first to Europe, but then mainly to the Americas to work in the plantations, in what were regarded as unhealthy climates. The Europeans brought Africans to the New World, thinking it was similar to the slaves’ native West Africa. Between the 15th and 19th centuries, traders brought about 15 million slaves to the Americas.

For an Enlightenment thinker of the 18th century, the idea of slavery was irrational. The violation of the rights of one person for the benefit of another was unacceptable. Human beings had the right to determine their own destinies and were too valuable to be the property of others. Thus, Enlightenment philosophers proclaimed that slavery should be abolished. All major religious groups had historically practiced slavery, but within each group there were dissenters. Some abolitionists split from their slavery-accepting churches and established denominations of their own. Quakers and evangelical religious groups began challenging slavery as un-Christian. The rise of moral disapproval allowed reformers such as Granville Sharpe to win a legal case in 1772 for the abolition of slavery in Great Britain. The English Court Chief Justice Lord Mansfield wrote a judgement, which is historically called the Charter of Freedom. In his decision, Mansfield wrote, “England is a soil whose air is deemed too pure for slaves to breathe in.” West Indian Englishmen could no longer bring their slaves to England.

Abolitionists attempted to outlaw slavery in the plantation areas of South America, the West Indies, and the U.S. South. Between 1777 and 1804, all American states north of Maryland outlawed slavery. France abolished slavery in 1794 during the French Revolution, restored slavery under the empire in 1802, and abolished it for good during the revolutionary fervor that spread through Europe in 1848. Great Britain officially abolished slavery in the British Empire in 1833, and the Royal Navy enforced the ban on the slave trade.