0:04 the Enlightenment was appeared in
0:07 history that transformed Western culture
0:10 the age of reason as it became known
0:13 occurring in the 17th and 18th century
0:15 saw long-established monarchies
0:17 religious institutions social systems
0:20 and hierarchies challenged from below
0:22 and a philosophical search for human
0:25 improvement ideas of Liberty and
0:29 religious tolerance traversed Europe
0:31 created social upheaval revolution and
0:34 change
0:37 but as the Enlightenment spread across
0:39 Europe Europe was spreading across the
0:42 world and this process was far from
0:45 peaceful while developments in industry
0:49 and politics may have encouraged
0:51 exploration and discovery
0:53 they also witnessed the rise of
0:55 imperialism and a vast and oppressive
0:58 institution that would transform the
1:00 lives of millions of people across the
1:03 globe this institution was slavery in
1:17 the early modern era native populations
1:21 in the new world had paid the ultimate
1:22 price as a result of European expansion
1:27 do you main lead to the introduction of
1:29 foreign and deadly diseases that they
1:31 have no immunity to roughly 80 million
1:35 Native Americans had died after European
1:37 contact this mass mortality was so
1:43 significant as to cause the Little Ice
1:45 Age a period of global cooling as a
1:48 result of reforestation colonists
1:53 seeking fortune seized land across the
1:56 new world and set about making it
1:58 provide profit African markets were
2:02 exploited an unprecedented quantities of
2:04 slave labour was used for cultivation
2:08 between 1500 and 1866 roughly 13 million
2:13 Africans were enslaved and transported
2:16 to the new world where a new profit
2:19 driven systematic and brutal plantation
2:22 system based on violence awaited them
2:26 and that was if they made it at least
2:29 one in ten of those transported did not
2:32 even survive the no tourists Middle
2:35 Passage
2:37 Britain claimed a significant stake in
2:40 the trade alongside other European
2:42 powers including the Dutch Portuguese
2:44 French and Spanish more than 3.2 million
2:48 slaves were transported from Africa on
2:51 British ships to the new world primarily
2:53 disembarking in the British Caribbean
2:55 colonies of Jamaica Barbados and Saint
2:58 Kitts to name but a few
3:01 roughly 500,000 slaves did not survive
3:05 the voyage
3:11 the transportation of slaves was
3:14 exercised on a massive scale it was part
3:17 of a wider triangular Atlantic commerce
3:22 slavery is absolutely central to the
3:25 British Empire from the 17th century all
3:27 the way through the 18th century and the
3:30 reason for that is that slavery is at
3:32 the center of a system of trade slaves
3:36 were purchased by British merchants on
3:38 the West African coast and they're
3:40 transported across the Atlantic on the
3:42 notorious Middle Passage to plantations
3:45 in the Americas primarily in the
3:48 Caribbean and their slaves are put to
3:51 work producing a variety of crops but
3:54 principally sugar that gets transported
3:57 back to Britain for British consumers
4:04 this was a modern commercial system
4:07 which created long range markets both
4:09 labor and consumer consumption none of
4:12 which would have been possible without
4:14 reason rationality or the Enlightenment
4:17 in fact many believe the Industrial
4:19 Revolution the hallmark of the
4:22 enlightened era actually began in the
4:24 Caribbean the slave trade became hugely
4:29 profitable to Britain through capital
4:32 flows investment and the establishment
4:34 of a market for manufactured goods some
4:37 have claimed that a stimulus was
4:39 provided for industrialization to occur
4:41 within the Metropole slavery in sugar
4:45 created huge individual fortunes and and
4:48 also benefited the British consumer in
4:51 the 17th century if you're gonna eat
4:53 sugar you have to have a lot of money
4:55 because it's incredibly rare but these
4:58 plantations that being planted in the
5:01 new world mean that this commodity is
5:04 being produced in far greater quantities
5:06 than ever it was before and so the price
5:09 goes down and so British consumers are
5:12 very hungry for this they like it and if
5:14 you think about our diet now cakes and
5:17 scones Jam all of these things depend
5:20 upon sugar even though the sugar that
5:23 British people who would have been using
5:25 to sweeten their tea in the 18th century
5:27 all of those things quite quickly become
5:30 central to the way that people lived
5:31 their lives britain's treasury also
5:35 gained immense wealth from the trade and
5:37 hence imperial defense was able to
5:40 receive substantial funding it could be
5:42 easily argued that the trade in Africans
5:45 lay at the foundation of Britain's
5:48 Empire so it actually goes quite quite a
5:52 long way beyond just people eating sugar
5:55 the money from sugar
5:59 transformed society create new wealthy
6:02 elite but it also enriches the extension
6:10 of the British state it's after roughly
6:13 two centuries of involvement in a trade
6:16 that generated vast amounts of wealth
6:18 and developed ports towns and cities and
6:21 had transformed the lifestyles of those
6:23 within the Metropole Britain decided to
6:26 abolish its slave trade on the 25th of
6:28 March 1807 but why was the abolition
6:34 bill ratified in an age where
6:36 politicians motivations rarely strayed
6:39 beyond the nation's security or economic
6:41 interest was the abolition act really
6:44 passed in philanthropic spirit as an act
6:47 of pure altruism or for the good of
6:49 humanity in this documentary I'll
6:53 attempt to answer this question I'll be
6:56 exploring the lead-up to abolition and
6:58 in particular the initial humanitarian
7:01 impulse and by figures such as William
7:03 Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson I will
7:06 also be exploring pro-slavery responses
7:09 both within the Metropole and across the
7:11 Atlantic to the fierce debate in Britain
7:14 in my journey to understand why
7:16 evolution occurred I will acknowledge
7:18 the challenges faced by the abolition
7:20 campaign and a change in political
7:23 strategy that along with favourable
7:26 external factors eventually led to the
7:29 abolition Act
7:32 you
7:40 [Music]
7:52 on the 22nd of May 1787 12 men 9 Quakers
7:57 and 3 Anglicans met here and what used
8:00 to be a printing shop in the City of
8:02 London
8:04 they met to coordinate a campaign which
8:07 had one sole purpose ending the human
8:10 traffic of Africans across the Atlantic
8:13 together they formed a Society for
8:16 effecting the abolition of the slave
8:18 trade the movement had emerged
8:22 universally amongst all of its
8:24 evangelical and Quaker founders from a
8:26 religious reaction against what they all
8:28 derided as nominal Christianity the
8:32 gospel however had been used for
8:34 centuries to endorse the commerce many
8:36 slave owners and merchants including the
8:39 highly regarded planter Edward long and
8:41 emphasized the compatibility of slavery
8:43 with the Christian scripture using
8:46 passages from the Bible to reinforce the
8:49 moral foundation of the institution
8:51 members of the abolition committee
8:54 represented a new form of Christianity
8:56 however a generation of Quakers and
8:59 evangelicals who viewed the slave trade
9:01 in a new enlightened era as a Commerce
9:04 which went against all of its religious
9:06 principles the movement had also emerged
9:11 in an era when colonial institutions
9:14 were already beginning to be questioned
9:16 by those in Britain after the American
9:18 Revolution many began to debate the
9:21 identity of the British Empire and what
9:23 role it should undertake on the global
9:25 stage
9:27 abolitionists had clearly expressed
9:29 through their attack on the slave trade
9:31 their visions for Empire one which
9:33 abided by and promoted new enlightened
9:36 forms of Christianity and became a
9:39 bastion of reformed and positive change
9:45 the conflict of the trade with
9:47 Christianity was best expressed in the
9:50 widely read and influential essays
9:52 written by two abolitionists
9:54 retrospectively the Scottish Anglican
9:57 curate James Ramsay and a devout
9:59 evangelical Christian Thomas Clarkson
10:03 James Ramsay had worked as a naval
10:05 surgeon in the West Indies and had lived
10:07 on the island of st. Kitts from 1762 to
10:11 1777
10:12 the curate commented on the inhumane
10:15 treatment he had personally witnessed
10:17 Schloss living in the Caribbean in his
10:19 essay on the treatment and conversion of
10:21 African slaves published in 1784 Ramsey
10:27 suggested that those involved in the
10:29 brutal trade who would be willing to
10:31 sacrifice their profits in order to
10:33 ameliorate the conditions of slaves
10:34 would be rewarded by God endless are the
10:39 methods by which in an unprecedented the
10:42 common accidents of life to reward men
10:45 who preferred duty to present advantage
10:47 who cooperate with his benevolence in
10:50 promoting the happiness of their fellow
10:52 creatures the pains that we use to
10:57 improve the minds of our fellow
10:59 creatures or a tun with advantage into
11:01 our bosoms God's grace will be stirred
11:05 up within us and our own disposition and
11:07 behavior will be corrected and amended
11:13 Ramzi also commented on the benefits of
11:15 ending the trade in terms of its
11:17 promotion of Christianity among slaves
11:19 many of whom I convert to the faith and
11:22 hence Christianity would receive new
11:25 strength Liberty new subjects the
11:31 Anglican campaigner and founding member
11:33 of the abolition society Thomas Clarkson
11:35 in his award-winning thesis published in
11:38 1786 entitled an essay on the slavery
11:42 and commerce of the human species echoed
11:44 the words of his influencer Ramsey in a
11:47 more direct attack on the slave trade
11:49 itself and those slave owners involved
11:52 Clarkson claimed how Christianity
11:54 suffers by the conduct of you receivers
11:58 for by prosecuting this impious Commerce
12:01 you keep the Africans in a state of
12:03 perpetual ferocity and barbarism and by
12:07 prosecuting it in such a manner as must
12:09 represent your religion as a system of
12:11 robbery and oppression you not only
12:14 opposed propagation of the gospel as far
12:17 as you are able yourselves but throw
12:19 impediments in the way of other who
12:21 might attempt the glorious task it's a
12:26 really important thing to remember that
12:28 as important as sugar was and as
12:30 lucrative as sugar was there were always
12:33 people who had their doubts about how it
12:37 was being produced so anti-slavery
12:40 questioning slavery is something that we
12:43 see from the 17th century through to the
12:46 18th century in some form or another and
12:48 very often those qualms that people have
12:51 about the institution of slavery are
12:53 moral and religious is it right to
12:56 exploit other human beings in these ways
12:58 simply so that we can have a commodity
13:00 that we enjoy eating
13:05 looking back today it would seem
13:07 appropriate to view these men as the
13:10 evangelical heroes after all they were
13:12 doing the right and honorable thing by
13:14 attacking such a brutal and degrading
13:16 commerce it's at the time these men was
13:19 seen as little more than mad eccentrics
13:21 and at the very best romantic idealists
13:24 and that's because they're attacking an
13:27 institution that had to find British
13:29 wealth and power for generations and an
13:32 institution that was growing every year
13:35 and so this begs the question how was
13:41 the abolition society going to gather
13:43 the support of the increasingly literate
13:45 but still predominantly illiterate
13:48 population in Britain and more
13:50 importantly how were they going to get
13:52 government to listen
14:03 the abolition committee set about this
14:06 task by mobilizing a campaign that would
14:08 gather the support of millions across
14:10 Britain morality humanitarianism and
14:14 Christianity was central to this
14:17 campaign and abolitionists would use
14:19 innovative strategies and propaganda
14:21 still seen in effective pressure group
14:24 politics to this day clever and perhaps
14:31 at the time unconventional campaigning
14:33 tools were used by the committee to
14:35 mobilize the public to play upon the
14:38 moral conscience of the population
14:39 pamphlets were published and brandished
14:42 with images that elicited sympathy from
14:44 even those who were illiterate Brooks's
14:48 slaveship was a prime example of an
14:50 image used to rile the public an
14:53 illustration of the inhumane and cramped
14:55 conditions endured by Africans aboard a
14:58 slave vessel that had sailed from
15:00 Liverpool to Jamaica in the late 18th
15:02 century the use of branding also enabled
15:07 the public to express their disapproval
15:09 of the traffic and feel as though they
15:11 were engaging in the debate the
15:13 campaign's emblem designed by Josiah
15:15 Wedgwood in 1787 that depicted a knelt
15:19 and shackled slave begging and uttering
15:21 the words am I not a man and a brother
15:23 was worn on bracelets or medallions
15:26 stamped into pottery and kitchenware and
15:28 even used on tobacco pipes
15:32 to many it became a symbol of an
15:35 enlightened view of the world really
15:38 quite suddenly a group of abolitionists
15:42 motivated for a variety of reasons but
15:45 mainly through an interest in religion
15:48 and a moral outrage at slavery managed
15:52 to galvanize popular opinion so that by
15:54 the end of the 1780s with the formation
15:58 of a abolition society looking to end
16:00 the slave trade in 1787 millions of
16:03 people had started to sign petitions
16:05 calling for the abolition of the slave
16:08 trade by engaging with the wider public
16:14 the campaign was able to gather huge
16:17 momentum dozens of sugar boycotts were
16:19 organized and petitions received
16:21 millions of signatures despite there
16:24 already being an appetite for debate in
16:26 Parliament the campaign was now
16:28 bolstered by the support of the masses
16:31 and the fundamental question of
16:33 abolition
16:34 it can be ignored by government no
16:36 longer
16:42 it was also not only white abolitionists
16:45 in Britain who opposed slavery for
16:49 generations and slaved Africans in the
16:51 Caribbean had been finding ways to
16:53 resist and rebel against the system this
16:57 would continue and take on new forms
16:58 during the time of the abolition debates
17:00 and in Britain the black community many
17:03 of whom were escaped or former slaves
17:05 also found ways to raise their voices
17:08 against slavery one such man was Paula
17:13 alder heck we are no one of the most
17:15 influential abolitionists of his
17:17 generation a former slave who had
17:21 purchased his freedom and travelled to
17:22 Britain published his autobiography in
17:25 1789 which documented his kidnap from
17:28 Africa his voyage across the Atlantic
17:30 and the brutality he witnessed during
17:34 his life in slavery it was very common
17:39 for slaves to be branded with the
17:40 initial letters of their masters name
17:42 and a load of heavy iron hooks from
17:44 around their neck
17:46 indeed on the most trifling occasions
17:48 they were loaded with chains and often
17:51 instruments of torture were added the
17:53 iron muzzle pump screws and such are so
17:56 well known assume not need a description
17:58 and was sometimes applied for the
18:01 slightest fault I have seen an equal be
18:04 into his bones were broken for only
18:07 letting a boil over by 1792 at qui a
18:14 nose book became a best-seller evidence
18:17 such as this not only gained public
18:19 attention but became extremely useful
18:22 when it came to lobbying for abolition
18:24 and government the man to spearhead the
18:30 campaign in Parliament was William
18:33 Wilberforce the MP for Yorkshire perhaps
18:36 best known for a speech he delivered to
18:38 the House of Commons on the 12th of May
18:40 1789 was convinced that the trade should
18:44 be stopped not only in principle but
18:46 also due to the inhumane conditions
18:48 endured by slaves across the Atlantic
18:51 and throughout the infamous Middle
18:53 Passage using facts and figures
18:57 accumulated by Clarkson Wilberforce
18:59 reason that the trade was morally
19:01 reprehensible and an issue of natural
19:03 justice exposing in detail the appalling
19:06 conditions in which slaves traveled from
19:09 Africa during the Middle Passage and
19:10 arguing that abolition would also bring
19:13 an improvement to the conditions of
19:15 existing slaves in the West Indies never
19:20 had the issue been so explicitly
19:22 described in the Commons chamber
19:24 Wilberforce's 12 resolutions signaled
19:27 the beginning of a long battle to
19:29 abolish the traffic in Parliament and
19:31 his arguments were echoed by MPs
19:33 throughout the 20-year debate that would
19:35 follow the early campaign however for
19:42 all its noise and all its support saw
19:45 very little legislative success
19:48 Wilberforce's first proposed bill
19:50 introduced in April 1791 was defeated
19:53 convincingly and eight years later
19:56 Britain's slave trade witnessed its
19:58 biggest year with nearly 50,000 children
20:01 women and men forced onto British
20:04 merchant ships to labor on sugar
20:06 plantations in the tropical colonies as
20:11 the 19th century dawned Wilberforce and
20:14 the other abolitionists clearly still
20:16 had a mountain to climb
20:18 one major obstacle that they had to
20:21 overcome was the overwhelming influence
20:23 and vested interest of both the colonial
20:27 planters so the abolitionists are trying
20:31 to abolish something that is really
20:33 really quite important and entrenched it
20:35 was the slave trade slavery and the
20:38 production of sugar had been central to
20:40 the British Empire for a while by the
20:44 time that they begin their campaign so
20:46 it's not a surprise that they come up
20:48 against opposition and principal
20:52 opponents for them perhaps
20:53 unsurprisingly are those people who own
20:55 large numbers of slaves and those people
20:58 involved in the slave trade sugar
21:01 planters with big properties in the West
21:03 Indies are a really vocal group that
21:07 seek to oppose the abolitionists and
21:09 argue against their case for ending the
21:12 slave trade but also the traders of
21:15 slaves Liverpool merchants and Bristol
21:18 merchants traders operating ships out of
21:22 those two really big British ports that
21:25 are central to the the slave trade on
21:27 the West African coast those slave
21:29 trading merchants are also really
21:31 important voices in opposition to the
21:34 Appalachia
21:35 I see that the miscreant Wilberforce has
21:41 begun upon the slave business again if
21:43 they mean nothing why do they play us
21:46 but they are so ignorant and obstinate
21:48 that they do not nor will not hear truth
21:51 or reason reason tells everyone to be
21:54 humane to everything under him but they
21:56 will not allow us to have common sense
21:58 reason tells them not to grate and
22:00 harass the minds of people that give
22:03 them a revenue of a million and a half
22:04 yearly and feed six hundred thousand of
22:08 her inhabitants but then who says no I
22:10 will annihilate you and I will suck the
22:13 blood from your vital
22:19 the initial momentum of the abolitionist
22:21 movement was in the early 1790s stopped
22:25 in its tracks but this was not a result
22:28 of any mismanagement or miscalculation
22:30 by the movement it was external factors
22:33 that came into play events occurring
22:36 across the channel and in the Caribbean
22:43 in part two of this documentary we will
22:47 focus on these external events namely
22:50 the revolution in France and
22:52 consequently the slave uprising in the
22:55 former French colony of Santa mang what
22:59 effect did these events have on the
23:00 abolition campaign and how abolitionists
23:03 able to utilize the domestic political
23:06 environment in their bid to see the
23:09 trade abolished forever
23:28 [Music]
23:50 you
24:00 you
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