Abstract
A reader of working men’s newspapers and journals for the 1820s and 1830s might easily conclude that the working classes’ worst enemies were the members of anti-slavery societies who were dedicated to freeing black slaves in far-off colonies while being blindly insensitive to the exploitation of white workers at home. The anti-slavery movement has been traditionally viewed as middle-class with the presumption that its adherents accepted current theories of political economy which taught that free labour and free trade would follow a natural course toward productive prosperity.1 Recent histories of the anti-slavery movement have pointed to exceptions, but none has studied the degree to which abolitionists and proponents of reforms for workers recognised their causes to be philosophically and pragmatically inseparable.2 Although it was initially difficult for many abolitionists to equate wage slavery with chattel slavery, and equally difficult for free British workers to acknowledge the similarity, each group learned from the other. The more the abolitionists publicised the horrid conditions of slavery, the more likely it was that British workers would see themselves as caught in similar circumstances.
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Notes and References
Recent works such as Howard Temperley, British Antislavery, 1833–1870 (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1972) and Christine Bolt, The Anti-Slavery Movement and Reconstruction, A Study of Anglo-American Co-operation, 1833–1877 (Oxford University Press, 1969) mention that some abolitionists, most specifically Joseph Sturge, were not insensitive to working-class oppression, but the relationship has not been studied in detail.
G. D. H. Cole includes Sturge in his Chartist Portraits (New York: Macmillan, 1965).
David B. Davis in The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1975) seems to conclude that the anti-slavery movement did more to bolster than to challenge the existing social order. He concedes that probably the abolition movement ‘bred a new sensitivity to social oppression’, but suspects that ‘Walvin exaggerates the continuing appeal of antislavery to working-class leaders’.
See chs 8 and 9, esp. pp. 368, 377, 384, 451, 455 and 467. My quotations are from note 30 on p. 368, and p. 467. The most recent work which upholds the traditional thesis of worker antipathy to the anti-slavery movement is Patricia Hollis, ‘Anti-Slavery and British Working-Class Radicalism in the Years of Reform’, in Christine Bolt and Seymour Drescher (eds), Anti-Slavery, Religion and Reform (Folkestone: Dawson Press, 1980).
Ibid.; Granville Sharp, The Legal Means of Political Reformation …, 8th edn (1797)
Granville Sharp, An Appendix to the Second Edition of Mr. Lofft’s Observations on a late Publication, entitled “A Dialogue on the Actual State of Parliaments” … (1783).
Alfred held that in its early stages Chartism reflected social aims. See Alfred [Samuel H. G. Kydd], The History of the Factory Movement from the Year 1802, to the Enactment of the Ten Hours’ Bill in 1847, 2 vols (1857; Reprints of Economic Classics, New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1966) vol. II, p. 77. Asa Briggs in his introduction to Cole’s Chartist Portraits agrees that ‘Chartism was born before the name’.
Simon Maccoby, English Radicalism, 1832–1852 (Geo. Allen and Unwin, 1935) pp. 174–6.
Nassau William Senior, Two Lectures on Population … (1829)
Senior to Henry Brougham, 9 Mar 1833, Brougham Papers; ‘Letter of 14 September 1832, to Lord Chancellor Brougham on Poor Law Reform,, in Leon S. Levy, Nassau W. Senior 1790–1864 (Newton Abbot: David and Charles, 1970) Appendix X, pp. 247–54. Martineau’s preachments on the need for the poor to limit their numbers are embodied in her Illustrations of Political Economy (1833). See also Francis Place to Martineau, 8 Sep 1832, Place Papers, Add. MS. 35149, fo. 189.
Henry Lord Brougham, The Life and Times of Henry Lord Brougham, Written by Himself, 3 vols (New York: Harper and Bros, 1871–2), vol. III, pp. 39–40
Chester New, The Life of Henry Brougham to 1830 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961) p. 149.
Cobbett is quoted in E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (New York: Vintage Books, 1963) p. 824. Thompson himself used the phrase ‘half-hearted or equivocal reformers like Brougham’ who played a ‘ritual’ role. See p. 604.
Harriet Martineau, Biographical Sketches (Macmillan, 1869) p. 164
Harriet Martineau, A History of the Thirty Years’ Peace, 4 vols (Geo. Bell and Sons, 1877) vol. III, p. 102; vol. II, p. 385. Some of Brougham’s anti-slavery colleagues were distrustful of him too. See H[enry] T[hornton] to Wm Wilberforce, 24 Sept 1804, and [James Stephen?] to Wilberforce [22 Sept 1804], Wilberforce Papers, Perkins Library, Duke University, Durham, NC.
The Scotsman (Edinburgh), 29 June, 17 and 24 July 1839; W. H. Marwick, A Short History of Labour in Scotland (Edinburgh: W. and R. Chambers, 1967) p. 11; Francis Place to Brougham, 4 July 1840, Brougham Papers.
Maria Weston Chapman (ed.), Harriet Martineau’s Autobiography and Memorials of Harriet Martineau, 2 vols (Boston: James R. Osgood, 1877) vol. I, p. 159.
Vera Wheatley, The Life and Work of Harriet Martineau (Fairtown, NJ: Essential Books, 1957) pp. 103–5
R. K. Webb, Harriet Martineau, A Radical Victorian (Wm Heinemann, 1960) pp. 130–2 and 346–9.
Edward Baines, MP, The Life of Edward Baines, Late M.P. for the Borough of Leeds, 2nd ed. (Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts, 1859) p. 167. Baines did support most features of the new Poor Law.
See Dorothy Thompson, The Early Chartists (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1971) p. 69 n.
Quoted in Robert George Gammage, History of the Chartist Movement 1837–1854, 2nd edn (1894; Reprints of Economics Classics, New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1969) p. 88.
Ralph E. Turner, James Silk Buckingham, 1786–1855, A Social Biography (Williams and Norgate, 1934) pp. 60 and 275
T. Perronet Thompson, ‘The Suffering Rich’, Westminster Review, XI (Apr 1834) 265–74
William Howitt, A Serious Address to the Members of the Anti-Slavery Society, on Its Present Position and Prospects (Wm Henry Cox, 1843) p. 6
Archibald Prentice, History of the Anti-Corn Law League, 2 vols (F. and G. Cash, 1853) vol. I, pp. 4–6
Stephen H. Hobhouse, Joseph Sturge, His Life and Work (J. M. Dent and Sons, 1919) pp. 35–6.
Quoted in Henry Richard, Memoirs of Joseph Sturge (S.W. Partridge, 1864) p. 296.
William Lovett and John Collins, Chartism; A New Organization of the People, Embracing a Plan for the Education and Improvement of the People Politically and Socially; Addressed to the Working-Classes of the United Kingdom, and More Especially to the Advocates of the Rights and Liberties of the Whole People as Set Forth in the “People’s Charter”, 2nd edn (1841); Dorothy Thompson, Early Chartists, p. 171.
James Silk Buckingham, Plan of an Improved Income Tax and Real Free Trade… (James Ridgway, 1845) pp. 62–5
J. S. Buckingham, Evils and Remedies of the Present System of Popular Elections … (Simpkin, Marshall, 1841) pp. 43–4, 63–5 and 121.
L. G. Johnson, General T. Perronet Thompson, 1783–1869 (Geo. Allen and Unwin, 1957) pp. 213 passim, 221 and 224; T. P. Thompson to John Bowring, 26 May 1841, Thompson Papers, University of Hull.
Alex Wilson, ‘Chartism in Glasgow’, in Asa Briggs (ed.) Chartist Studies (Macmillan, 1959) pp. 251–3.
William Darling, Henry Vincent, A Biographical Sketch with a Preface by Mrs. Vincent (James Clark, 1879) pp. 66–9.
A. R. Schoyen, The Chartist Challenge: A Portrait of George Julian Harney (Heinemann, 1958) pp. 3 and 8.
Patrick Brewster, Chartist and Socialist Sermons (Glasgow: Forward, [n.d.]) p. iii; Alexander Wilson, The Chartist Movement in Scotland (Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press, 1970) pp. 62–3.
Harold U. Faulkner, Chartism and the Churches (New York; Columbia Univ. Press, 1916) pp. 35 and 40–1; The Chartist, 2 Feb 1839; The Scotsman, 11 Jan 1840. It should be pointed out that members of other groups, including the Anti-Corn Law League, retaliated by disrupting Chartist meetings.
Glasgow Emancipation Society Minute Book II, 10 Aug 1840; Scots Times, 12 Aug 1840; Glasgow Argus, 13 Aug 1840; Robert L. Bingham, ‘The Glasgow Emancipation Society, 1833–76’ (University of Glasgow, unpublished M. Litt. thesis, 1973) pp. 139–40.
John Pease, A Few Hints on Happiness Addressed to the Working Classes of Great Britain by a Tradesman (Leeds, 1831). The manuscript is in the Pease Papers, D/HO/X1 Durham County Record Office. John Pease, ‘To the Labouring Classes’, D/HO/X1. An attached note says ‘Address intended for publication during the Chartist and other Excitements, … only prevented printing by pressure of other engagements’.
W. E. Forster to Barclay Fox, 22 Mar 1842, in T. Wemyss Reid, Life of the Right Honorable W. E. Forster, 2 vols, 3rd edn (Chapman and Hall, 1888; reprinted, Bath: Adams and Dart, 1970) pp. 148–52, 153–5, 158 and 278–82.
T. Perronet Thompson, ‘The Suffering Rich’, Westminster Review, XI (April 1834) 265–74; Thompson to John Bowring, 2 Aug 1834, Thompson Papers.
Joseph Sturge, A Visit to the United States in 1841 (1842; Reprints of Economics Classics, New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1969) pp. 102–3 and 147; Sturge to the Electors of Nottingham, 1 May 1842, Nonconformist, 25 May 1842.
J. P. Mursell was pastor of the Bond Street Independent Chapel in Leicester, active in Reform Bill politics and in the Anti-Corn Law League. See A. Temple Patterson, Radical Leicester, A History of Leicester 1780–1850 (Leicester: for University College, Leicester, 1954).
The Rev. Dr J. W. Massie believed that working people needed more than religion and lectured to them on such topics as ‘The Importance to the Entire Body Politic in this Country, of the Social Advancement of the Working Classes’. He was an Anti-Corn Law activist, helped to organise the Anti-Slavery League, and during the American Civil War lectured for the Union cause. See Nonconformist, 18 and 25 Aug 1841: 12 Aug 1846; 14 Nov 1849; Betty Fladeland, Men and Brothers; Anglo-American Antislavery Cooperation (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1972) p.403.
Henry Solly, These Eighty Years, Or, The Story of An Unfinished Life, 2 vols (Simpkin, Marshall, 1893) pp. 328–9, 343–4, 369–72, 375–82, 394 and 397–409. Solly moved to London where he lived amidst the poor with whom he worked. Among his writings are Working Men; a Glance at Some of Their Wants; with Reasons and Suggestions for Helping Them to Help Themselves, 4th edn (London: Jerrold and Sons, 1865); Destitute Poor and Criminal Classes. A Few Thoughts on How to Deal with the Unemployed Poor of London, and with Its “Roughs” and Criminal Classes (Social Science Ass’n, 1868); and a novel, James Woodford, Carpenter and Chartist, 2 vols (Sampson Law, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1881) which carries a Chartist message.
Ashurst was a radical London solicitor who championed the poor, the Charter, and equal rights for women. Prior to 1832 he had vowed not to pay taxes until the Reform Bill passed. G. H. Holyoake, The History of Co-operation (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1906) vol. I, p. 191
Walter Merrill and Louis Ruchames (eds), The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1971) vol. II, pp. 202n. and 666n.
The Howitts took over The People’s Journal and continued editing it as People’s and Howitt’s Journal. Besides numerous articles dealing with anti-slavery and labour it ran a series by William called ‘Letters on Labour to the Working Men of England’. See issues from 11 Apr 1846 to 20 June 1846. The Howitts were active in the Co-operative League and on behalf of Mechanics Institutes. Margaret Howitt (ed.), Mary Howitt, An Autobiography, 2 vols (Wm Isbister, 1889).
W. J. Linton, a wood engraver, issued a Chartist sheet The National from 1848 to 1852. He antedated Henry George by calling for a single tax on land. W. J. Linton, The People’s Land, and an Easy Way to Recover It (J. Watson, 1850); Mark Hovell, Chartist Movement, p. 299.
Duncan McLaren was the brother-in-law of John Bright and active in the free trade as well as anti-slavery, education, peace and suffrage movements. See J. B. Mackie, The Life and Work of Duncan McLaren, 2 vols (Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1888).
J. F. C. Harrison, ‘Chartism in Leeds’, in Briggs (ed.), Chartist Studies, p. 96; Billington, ‘Some Connections’, p. 223; Joseph Barker, The Life of Joseph Barker. Written by Himself Edited by His Nephew, John Thomas Barker (Hodden and Stoughton, 1880) pp. 245 and 289–97; The Christian, 14 Feb 1848
Joseph Barker, The Reformer’s Almanac … (Wortley, 1848).
William Wells Brown, Three Years in Europe; Or, Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met. With a Memoir of the Author, by William Farmer, Esq. (Charles Gilpin, 1852) pp. 12, 91–2, 139–41, 206 and 223
Samuel R. Ward, Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro: His Anti-Slavery Labours in the United States, Canada and England (John Snow, 1855).
Earl Ofari, “Let Your Motto Be Resistance,” The Life and Thought of Henry Highland Garnet (Boston: Beacon Press, 1972) p. 58
Joel Schor, Henry Highland Garnet (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1977) p. 167; Banner of Ulster, 7 Feb 1851 (with thanks to R. Blackett for citation).
Philip S. Foner, Frederick Douglass (New York: Citadel Press, 1964 p. 101; Nonconformist, 27 May 1846.
Cole, Chartist Portraits, p. 22. Eventually Marx and Engels turned against Jones because he was willing to ally with the middle classes. John Saville, Ernest Jones: Chartist (Lawrence and Wishart, 1952) pp. 21, 42 and appendix I.
A. R. Schoyen, The Chartist Challenge, A Portrait of George Julian Harney (Heinemann, 1958) p. 266; Saville, Ernest Jones, pp. 66–9 and 76–7.
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© 1982 Michael Craton, Seymour Drescher, David Eltis, Betty Fladeland, David Geggus, B. W. Higman, C. Duncan Rice, James Walvin
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Fladeland, B. (1982). ‘Our Cause being One and the Same’: Abolitionists and Chartism. In: Walvin, J. (eds) Slavery and British Society 1776–1846. Problems in Focus Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-16775-3_4
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