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Equiano & Abolition of Slave Trade

Olaudah Equiano, Thomas Clarkson & the Abolition of the Slave Trade

SHORT SUMMARY

Cambridge was once home to two of the most prominent campaigners against the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797), enslaved African and author who married in Cambridgeshire, and Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846), a graduate of St John’s College, were both early activists. They devoted their lives to the cause and were pivotal in the eventual Bill which abolished the Slave Trade within Britain (1807).

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STORY CONTENT

Enslaved African Olaudah Equiano, also known as Gustavas Vassa (1745-1797), was an author and campaigner against the Transatlantic Slave Trade. In his hugely influential biographyThe Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the African(1789),he records that he was born in what is now Nigeria, kidnapped, separated from his family and sold into slavery at the age of 11. In this text Equiano describes his passage aboard a slave ship to Virginia although the research of Prof Vincent Caretta shows that Equiano was actually born in the Carolinas. The Middle Passage descriptions are for narrative purposes to share with the British public what he learnt on his plantations from the stories of recently enslaved Africans from Nigeria. He was eventually transported to the West Indies, purchased by a naval captain named Captain Pascal and travelled extensively on Pascal’s naval missions. After 16 years of enslavement he had saved enough money to buy his freedom.

Equiano then began a series of actions and campaigns to better the conditions that those who were enslaved had to endure, culminating in 1788 with him leading a delegation to the House of Commons in support of William Dolben's bill to limit the number of enslaved Africans that a ship could transport. Understanding that his own life story was one of the most powerful tools in fighting the Slave Trade, he published his autobiography in 1789 and travelled the country promoting it. A letter dated July 9th1789 from fellow campaigner and Cambridge graduate, Thomas Clarkson, shows that Equiano intended to visit Cambridge for this reason: “I take the Liberty of introducing to your Notice Gustavus Vasa, the Bearer, a very honest, ingenious, and industrious African, who wishes to visit Cambridge. He takes with him a few Histories containing his own Life written by himself, of which he means to dispose to defray his Journey.”

Three years later Equiano would return to the region, albeit for a very different reason. On the 7thApril 1792, he married Susannah Cullen at St Andrew’s Church, Soham. Shortly after the wedding he returned to the important work that he was doing. Prior to the wedding he wrote, “I now mean to leave London in about 8 or 10 days and to take me a wife (one Miss Cullen) of Soham in Cambridgeshire. When I have given her about 8 or 10 days comfort, I mean directly to go to Scotland…I trust that my going has been of much use to the cause of Abolition of the accursed Slave Trade.”

It can be assumed that he returned to Cambridge and took up residence in Soham as their two daughters Anna Maria Vassa (born 1793) and Joanna Vassa (born 1795) were baptised in the same church that he and Susannah were married in.

Equiano died in March 1797 but the work of other early activists continued the campaign against the Slave Trade. Thomas Clarkson was born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, on 28th March 1760. As an undergraduate at St John’s College, Cambridge, he had planned to join the church but an academic task completely altered his career path.

In 1785, Clarkson entered the Members' Prize for a Latin Essay, writing on the subject of 'anne liceat invitos in servitutem dare?' ('is it lawful to make slaves of others against their will?'). One of the books that he read whilst researching this essay was Anthony Benezet’sHistorical Account of Guinea.Deeply affected by what he read, the essay transformed from academic practice to activism:

“It was but one gloomy subject from morning to night. In the daytime I was uneasy. In the night I had little rest. I sometimes never closed my eye-lids for grief. It became now not so much a trial for academical reputation, as for the production of a work, which might be useful to injured Africa.”

The essay won the prize and was read in the Senate House, University of Cambridge, in June 1785, received tremendous praise, and was published the following year. Returning from the reading of the essay at the Senate House, Clarkson, troubled by the subject of his writings, paused on the roadside and contemplated the reality of his subject matter. This marked the beginning of an undertaking that would last until his death in 1846. “…the subject of it almost wholly engrossed my thoughts. I became at times very seriously affected while upon the road. I stopped my horse occasionally, and dismounted and walked. I frequently tried to persuade myself in these intervals that the contents of my Essay could not be true…I sat down disconsolate on the turf by the roadside and held my horse. Here a thought came into my mind, that if the contents of the Essay were true, it was time some person should see these calamities to their end.”

In May 1787, Clarkson, along with 11 other men, established the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade. With the support of William Wilberforce, the MP for Hull, speaking for them in Parliament, they were able to instigate a Parliamentary investigation into the Slave Trade.

Clarkson’s role required him to research and collect as much evidence as possible about the mistreatment of enslaved Africans. He worked tirelessly at this, travelling 35,000 miles around the country meeting with people involved in the trade, writing pamphlets and speaking publicly about the horrors of slavery.

In 1787, Clarkson visited Bristol to meet two surgeons formerly employed on the ships, James Arnold and Alexander Falconbridge. Both men gave him detailed descriptions of life on those vessels. Clarkson writes that Falconer’s testimony “confirmed the various violent and treacherous methods of procuring them in their own country; their wretched condition, in consequence of being crowded together in the passage; their attempts to rise in defence of their own freedom, and, when this was impracticable, to destroy themselves by the refusal of sustenance, by jumping overboard into the sea, and in other ways; the effect also of their situation upon their minds, by producing insanity and various diseases; and the cruel manner of disposing of them in the West Indies, and of separating relatives and friends.”

Equiano also recounts the atrocious conditions of those who were forced to travel on the middle passage in his autobiography – details he would have received from other Africans. “The air soon became unfit for breathing from a variety of loathsome smells” he recalls “and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died. This wretched situation was made worse by the chains. The shrieks of women, and the groaning of the dying, created a scene of horror almost unbelievable. Three desperate slaves tried to kill themselves by jumping overboard. Two drowned, the other was captured and beaten unmercifully.”

The work that these men were carrying out was threatening to many individuals working within the trade, and in the case of Thompson it marked him as a target. When leaving Bristol in 1787, Clarkson moved onto Liverpool where he was attacked by eight or nine men, who, pushing him towards the end of the pier, aimed to throw him into the sea and make it look like an accident. Clarkson was able to force one of them to the ground, and breaking through a barrage of blows he was able to escape. He continued his campaign overseas. Travelling to France in 1789, he attempted to persuade the French Government to abolish the Slave Trade. Ill health forced him to retire from his work in 1794 but he returned to the cause in 1804. Three years later the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed in the House of Commons by 283 votes to 16, marking the end of slavery within Britain. Although this landmark event was a significant victory, it wasn’t until 1833 that Parliament passed an act which abolished slavery throughout the Empire.

MATERIAL FOR POETS & COMPOSERS

1. Olaudah Equiano’sThe Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the African(1789)

Olaudah Equiano, describes being captured and enslaved in his autobiography:

One day, when all our people were gone out to their works as usual, and only I and my dear sister were left to mind the house, two men and a woman got over our walls, and in a moment seized us both. My sister and I were separated and I ended up in the hands of a slave dealer who supplied the Atlantic slave ships. Six months later I found myself on board a slave ship. …

… Thus was I like the hunted deer:

—"Ev'ry leaf and ev'ry whisp'ring breath

Convey'd a foe, and ev'ry foe a death."

Olaudah Equiano views on slavery:

Such a tendency has the slave-trade to debauch men's minds, and harden them to every feeling of humanity! For I will not suppose that the dealers in slaves are born worse than other men—No; it is the fatality of this mistaken avarice, that it corrupts the milk of human kindness and turns it into gall. And, had the pursuits of those men been different, they might have been as generous, as tender-hearted and just, as they are unfeeling, rapacious and cruel. Surely this traffic cannot be good, which spreads like a pestilence, and taints what it touches! which violates that first natural right of mankind, equality and independency, and gives one man a dominion over his fellows which God could never intend!...

… Why do you use those instruments of torture? Are they fit to be applied by one rational being to another? And are ye not struck with shame and mortification, to see the partakers of your nature reduced so low? But, above all, are there no dangers attending this mode of treatment? Are you not hourly in dread of an insurrection? Nor would it be surprising: for when

"—No peace is given

To us enslav'd, but custody severe;

And stripes and arbitrary punishment

Inflicted—What peace can we return?

But to our power, hostility and hate;

Untam'd reluctance, and revenge, though slow,

Yet ever plotting how the conqueror least

May reap his conquest, and may least rejoice

In doing what we most in suffering feel."

Description from Olaudah Equiano autobiography describing the middle passage.

At last, when the ship we were in, had got in all her cargo, they made ready with many fearful noises, and we were all put under deck, so that we could not see how they managed the vessel. ...The stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so intolerably loathsome....The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died -- thus falling victims to the improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchasers.

Description from Olaudah Equiano autobiography describing the middle passage:

The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. The air soon became unfit for breathing, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died. This wretched situation was made worse by the chains. The shrieks of women, and the groaning of the dying, created a scene of horror almost unbelievable. Three desperate slaves tried to kill themselves by jumping overboard. Two drowned, the other was captured and beaten unmercifully. When I refused to eat, I too was beaten.

Olaudah Equiano, describes his arrival in the West Indies in his autobiography:

When we arrived in Barbados (in the West Indies) many merchants and planters came on board and examined us. We were then taken to the merchant’s yard, where we were all pent up together like sheep in a fold. On a signal the buyers rushed forward and chose those slaves they liked best.

Olaudah Equiano, describes Life on the plantations in his autobiography:

I have seen a slave beaten till some of his bones were broken, for only letting a pot boil over. I have seen slaves put into scales and weighed, and then sold from three pence to nine pence a pound.

Letter to the Queen:

March the 21st, 1788, I had the honour of presenting the Queen with a petition on behalf of my African brethren, which was received most graciously by her Majesty[Y]:

To the QUEEN's most Excellent Majesty

Madam,

Your Majesty's well known benevolence and humanity emboldens me to approach your royal presence, trusting that the obscurity of my situation will not prevent your Majesty from attending to the sufferings for which I plead.

Yet I do not solicit your royal pity for my own distress; my sufferings, although numerous, are in a measure forgotten. I supplicate your Majesty's compassion for millions of my African countrymen, who groan under the lash of tyranny in the West Indies.

The oppression and cruelty exercised to the unhappy negroes there, have at length reached the British legislature, and they are now deliberating on its redress; even several persons of property in slaves in the West Indies, have petitioned parliament against its continuance, sensible that it is as impolitic as it is unjust—and what is inhuman must ever be unwise.

Your Majesty's reign has been hitherto distinguished by private acts of benevolence and bounty; surely the more extended the misery is, the greater claim it has to your Majesty's compassion, and the greater must be your Majesty's pleasure in administering to its relief.

I presume, therefore, gracious Queen, to implore your interposition with your royal consort, in favour of the wretched Africans; that, by your Majesty's benevolent influence, a period may now be put to their misery; and that they may be raised from the condition of brutes, to which they are at present degraded, to the rights and situation of freemen, and admitted to partake of the blessings of your Majesty's happy government; so shall your Majesty enjoy the heartfelt pleasure of procuring happiness to millions, and be rewarded in the grateful prayers of themselves, and of their posterity.

And may the all-bountiful Creator shower on your Majesty, and the Royal Family, every blessing that this world can afford, and every fulness of joy which divine revelation has promised us in the next.

I am your Majesty's most dutiful and devoted servant to command,

Gustavus Vassa,

The Oppressed Ethiopean.

2. Papers of Thomas Clarkson, GBR/0275/Clarkson, St John's College Library

http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0275%2FClarkson

Clarkson won the Members' Prize for a Latin Essay in 1785, the subject being 'anne liceat invitos in servitutem dare?' ('is it lawful to make slaves of others against their will?').

…Wordsworth addressed to him a sonnet 'on the final passing of the Bill for the Abolition of the Slave Trade' in March 1807 which began 'Clarkson, it was an obstinate hill to climb'.

3. William Wordsworth’s PoemTO THOMAS CLARKSON ON THE FINAL PASSING OF THE BILL FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE, MARCH 1807

CLARKSON! it was an obstinate hill to climb:

How toilsome--nay, how dire--it was, by thee

Is known; by none, perhaps, so feelingly:

But thou, who, starting in thy fervent prime,

Didst first lead forth that enterprise sublime,

Hast heard the constant Voice its charge repeat,

Which, out of thy young heart's oracular seat,

First roused thee.--O true yoke-fellow of Time,

Duty's intrepid liegeman, see, the palm

Is won, and by all Nations shall be worn!

The blood-stained Writing is for ever torn;

And thou henceforth wilt have a good man's calm,

A great man's happiness; thy zeal shall find

Repose at length, firm friend of human kind!

4.THE HISTORY OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE-TRADE, BY THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT,By THOMAS CLARKSON, M.A. 1839

http://www.thomasclarkson.org/tcfaq.htm#foot3

…As it is usual to read these Essays publicly in the senate-house soon after the prize is adjudged, I was called to Cambridge for this purpose. I went and performed my office. On returning however to London, the subject of it almost wholly engrossed my thoughts. I became at times very seriously affected while upon the road. I stopped my horse occasionally, and dismounted and walked. I frequently tried to persuade myself in these intervals that the contents of my Essay could not be true. The more, however, I reflected upon them, or rather upon the authorities on which they were founded, the more I gave them credit. Coming in sight of Wades Mill, in Hertfordshire, I sat down disconsolate on the turf by the roadside and held my horse. Here a thought came into my mind, that if the contents of the Essay were true, it was time some person should see these calamities to their end. Agitated in this manner, I reached home. This was in the summer of 1785.”

Clarkson (1808) History - Vol. I pp 208-9 http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10633/10633-h/10633-h.htm#preface