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SUMMARY:The defence of slavery in Britain\, 1823-33 - Michael Taylor
DTSTART:20131008T193000Z
DTEND:20131008T200000Z
UID:TALK47470@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Benjamin Folit-Weinberg
DESCRIPTION:"Traditionally\, anti-slavery has been central to popular conc
 eptions of the British national story: campaigners such as William Wilberf
 orce\, John Newton\, and Thomas Fowell Buxton have been celebrated as Brit
 ish heroes and the year 1807\, when Parliament abolished the slave trade\,
  is engraved into the national psyche. Yet\, for twenty-six years after th
 e abolition of the trade\, the institution of slavery itself was maintaine
 d and prospered in the British West Indies. Indeed\, the campaign for the 
 emancipation of British colonial slaves did not begin until 1823\; even th
 en\, it took ten years of vicious political intrigue\, press wars\, and pr
 otracted struggle before emancipation was secured. This paper will focus o
 n two aspects of the hitherto-ignored 'losing side' of that battle: the de
 fenders of slavery who fought against emancipation. First\, it looks at th
 e institutions\, newspapers and journals\, intellectuals\, and statesmen -
  including Canning\, Peel\, Gladstone\, and Wellington - that formed an ac
 tive and immensely powerful proslavery network. Second\, it looks at the p
 rincipal arguments employed against slave emancipation: the theological\, 
 which justified slavery in terms of Biblical scripture\; the economic\, wh
 ich held the West Indian slave system as central to imperial prosperity\; 
 and the racial\, which argued that slavery was essential for the civilizat
 ional progress of the African race. By doing this\, and by studying the Br
 itish proslavery cause for the first time\, it will be shown not only that
  the defence of slavery was central to the political\, intellectual\, and 
 journalistic worlds of the British 1820s and 1830s\, but also that proslav
 ery champions in fact may have won their arguments: when the Emancipation 
 Act was passed in 1833\, it was the slave-owners\, *not* the slaves\, who 
 were awarded £20\,000\,000 in reparations."
LOCATION:Bateman Auditorium\, Gonville & Caius College
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