Abstract
In the early decades of the nineteenth century, as industrialization proceeded at a rapid pace and as labour developed greater consciousness of exploitation, abolitionists, especially those who were themselves employers, were constant targets of the radical press. T. J. Wooler, editor of the Black Dwarf, and William Cobbett in his Political Register were especially adept with satirical barbs which portrayed antislavery leaders as pious hypocrites who wrung their hands over the plight of far-off black slaves while at home they eased their consciences by supplying the poor with Bibles instead of bread.1 Some abolitionists were guilty as charged, but a great many were not. One who did not fit the stereotype was Joseph Sturge of Birmingham.2
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Notes
After the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 the energies of the British antislavery movement subsided to some extent and were largely taken up with ameliorative measures. It was not until the early 1820s that the new impetus for total emancipation was revitalized and organised. For Sturge’s participation see Henry Richard, Memoirs of Joseph Sturge (London: S. W. Partridge, 1864) pp. 79–86; Hobhouse, Sturge, ch. 4; Birmingham Anti-Slavery Society Minute Book, Birmingham Reference Library.
I am not trying to claim a ‘first’ for Sturge on this proposal. In a forthcoming biography of Charles Stuart, A. J. Barker points out that he made the suggestion too. Such a move occurred to several of the leaders at about the same time. In a letter to Maria Weston Chapman, 1 May 1846, Catherine [Mrs Thomas] Clarkson credits Sturge with shortening the apprenticeship period. See British and American Abolitionists: An Episode in Transatlantic Understanding, ed. Clare Taylor (Edinburgh: Univ. of Edinburgh Press, 1974) pp. 261–2; Temperley, British Antislavery, ch. 4; Betty Fladeland, Men and Brothers: Anglo-American Antislavery Cooperation (Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1972) pp. 244–50;
Sturge and Thomas Harvey, The West Indies in 1837; Being the Journal of a Visit to Antigua, Montserrat, Dominica, St Lucia, Barbadoes, andJamaica; Undertaken for the Purpose of Ascertaining the Actual Condition of the Negro Population in Those Islands, 2nd edn (London: Hamilton, Adams, 1838). Sturge was examined at length by the parliamentary investigating committee. See Minute Book of the Anti-Slavery Society, 7 June 1837, Rhodes House Anti-Slavery Collection, Oxford.
At one point Lewis Tappan had suggested to Sturge that they buy an estate in Jamaica together; but it was at the time of the Crimean War and Sturge was too busy with his peace activities. Richard, Memoirs of Sturge, pp. 196–9, 488, 533; William R. Hughes, Sophia Sturge, A Memoir (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1940) pp. 16, 111, 176–7; Hobhouse, Sturge, pp. 47–8. The Birmingham Reference Library has a Prospectus, The Montserrat Company Limited dated 1875. The names of four Sturges appear in the list of directors.
Richard, Memoirs of Sturge, pp. 18–20, 429; John Angell James, Christian Philanthropy: As Exemplified in the Life and Character of the Late Joseph Sturge, May 22, 1859 (London: Hamilton, Adams, [ 1859 ]).
Silvan S. Tomkins, ‘The Psychology of Commitment: The Constructive Role of Violence and Suffering for the Individual and for His Society’, in The Antislavery Vanguard: New Essays on the Abolitionists, ed. Martin Duberman (Princeton, NJ, 1965) ch. 12.
Quoted in Augustus Diamond, Joseph Sturge, A Christian Merchant, published for the Friends’ Tract Association in the series Friends Ancient and Modern, no. 12 (London: Headley Bros, 1909).
David B. Davis, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution (Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press, 1975) p. 246.
E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (New York: Vintage, 1963) p. 815.
BirminghamJournal, 30 Mar 1839; Northern Star, 29 Dec 1838, clipping in HO 40/37, PRO. For an elaboration of this subject see Betty Fladeland, ‘“Our Cause Being One and the Same”: Abolitionists and Chartism’, in Slavery and British Society 1776–1846, ed. James Walvin (London: Macmillan, 1982) pp. 69–99.
G. D. H. Cole, A Short History of the Working Class Movement 1789–1927, 2 vols (New York: Macmillan, 1930) vol. 1, p. 141.
Introduction by Sturge to Edward Miall, Reconciliation between the Middle and Labouring Classes (Birmingham: B. Hudson, 1842).
Herbert Spencer, An Autobiography, 2 vols (London: Williams & Norgate, 1904) vol. I, pp. 218–19, 247–57; Hobhouse, Sturge, pp. 78–9; Nonconformist, 22 Feb 1843. The Pilot (Birmingham) was published from 1844 to 1846 after the failure of the Complete Suffrage Union.
All of these positions and their arguments were aired in the Nonconformist for 1842. See also Robert George Gammage, History of the Chartist Movement, 1837–1854, 2nd edn (London, 1894; repr. New York: Economic Classics, Augustus M. Kelley, 1959) pp. 198–203.
For interesting analyses of Place’s role see W. E. S. Thomas, ‘Francis Place and Working Class History’, the Historical Journal, vol. v, no. 1 (1962) pp. 61–70;
D. J. Rowe, ‘The Failure of London Chartism’, ibid., vol. xi, no. 3 (1968) pp. 472–87, and ‘Francis Place and the Historian’, ibid., vol. xvi, no. 1 (1973) pp. 45–63.
On O’Connor see Birmingham Journal, 5 Mar 1842, and William Lovett, The Life and Struggles of William Lovett, in his Pursuit of Bread, Knowledge, and Freedom; with Some Short Account of the Different Associations he Belonged to, and of the Opinions he Entertained (London: Trübner, 1856) pp. 274–5. On Baines see Nonconformist, 9 Mar, 28 Sep and 8 Oct 1842.
On Thompson see L. G. Johnson, General T. Perronet Thompson, 1783–1869. His Military, Literary, and Political Campaigns (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1957) pp. 26–8, 243. See essay on Thompson following in this volume.
O’Connor’s most recent biographers credit him with sincerity in his switch. They say that after the failure of the Chartist National Petition he realised his mistake and saw the need of co-operation between the classes. Donald Reed and Eric Glasgow, Feargus O’Connor, Irishman and Chartist (London: Edward Arnold, 1961) pp. 101–3. His contemporaries were less charitable. Miall said O’Connor would have nothing to do with the December conference until the method of choosing delegates was changed, which gave him a chance to pack the meeting (Nonconformist, 23 Nov 1842).
For accounts of the December convention see the Nonconformist, 28 and 31 Dec 1842; Cooper, Life, pp. 220–7; Lovett, Life and Struggles, pp. 274–85; Gammage, History of the Chartist Movement, pp. 241–4; Mark Hovell, The Chartist Movement (Manchester, 1918; repr. New York: Economic Classics, Augustus M. Kelley, 1969) pp. 264–5;
Preston Slosson, The Decline of the Chartist Movement (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1916) pp. 72–7; and Cole, Short History of the Working Class Movement, vol. i, pp. 162–3. For leadership ego and clashes see also Cobden to William Lovett, 25 Apr 1842, Lovett Letters, Add. MS 47663F, BL; and the Northern Star, 16 Apr and 3 Dec 1842. Bronterre O’Brien was one of O’Connor’s fiercest critics. See his British Statesmen, 5 Nov 1842 and following issues.
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© 1984 Betty Fladeland
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Fladeland, B. (1984). Joseph Sturge. In: Abolitionists and Working-Class Problems in the Age of Industrialization. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06997-2_3
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