BRISTOL AND THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY The Politics of Emancipation by PETER MARSHALL ' -., ..,r .'."'.z-+_ lSSUED BY THE BR'ISTO:L 'BRANCH OF THE HISTORICAL ASS01CIATION THE UNIVERSITY, BRISTO'l Price Forty Pence 1975 BRISTOL BRANCH OF THE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION BRISTOL AND THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY/ LOCAL HISTORY PAMPHLETS The Politics of Emancipation Hon. General Editor: PATRICK McGRATH by PETER MARSHALL Assistant General Editor: PETER HARRIS The abol1ition in August 1833 orf the institution o!f slavery t The Politics of Emancipation is the thirty-seventh pamphlet in throughout the British Empire brought an end to activiies with a se1:fos on foca1 'history published 'by tlhe Bristol Branch of ithe which Bristolians had been associated for two centuries. Although Historical Association. It is an expanded version of the fourth the previous fifty years had seen the emergence of severe and Frederick Creech Jones Memorial Lecture delivered by Professor general criticism of slavery, it was only to be expected, in the Peter Marshall 1in the University of Bristol in 1973. The Branch light orf the city's renowned links with the West Indies, that the wishes to express its thanks for grants given by the Frederick campaign for Emancipation would encounter opposition. And CreechJones Memorial Fund and by the Marc Fitch Fund Ito assist indeed, a:fter 1830 Bristol experienced a period of unparalleled with the cost of publication. po�itica'l turmoil, which in considerabiJe measure turned on the issue orf slavery. The relative importance of the coincidenlal cam­ i The ;Branch would like to thank Miss Mary Williams, fhe Bristol paigns for poltical reform, both in the city and in the country City Archivist, for supplying the illustrations. at large, and for Abolition, is virtually impossilble to assess. In The next pamphilelt in the series wiU deal witlh merchant seamen Bristol the political and humanitarian movements frequently o¥er­ in the eighteenth century. In the course of 1976, the Branch hopes lapped, both in purpose and in personnel Events in Bristol were to publish a pamphlet dealing with the attitude of Bristolians to shaped by 'local circumstances and a'ttained national importance; the American Declaration of Independence of 1776 and another no bet,ter illustration could be offered of the process by whioh the pamphlet to commemorate the founding of University College, popular politics oif the eighteenth century was to be transformed Bristol, in 187'6. into the qualified democracy of the Victofi!an age. It is difficult to calculate with any precision the magn'itude otf Bigh!t of :tlhe pamphlets in tthis series !have appeared !in book form the direct and ind1irect stakes of Bristoil in the West Indian econ­ under the title of Bristol in the Eighteenth Century, edited by omy on the eve oif Emancipation. Figures can do no more than Patrick McGrath, and published by David and Charles. The book po!int to prolbable scafos of interest. Ownership of s1aves. the is now available at £1.50. distribution orf which cannot be aocurately or adequately analysed from offida1l records, represented but one element in that network A number of pamphlets are out-of-print, and ithe list on the inside back cover shows only ;those which are still available. of financial and economic connections wihioh constituted the West India interest. Extending far beyond the plantations and islands Complete sets are very scarce, but they occasionally come on the h market, and anyone interested should communicate wiVhMr. Peter of te CarilJbean, this accumu1'a1fon of generations oif European Harris. enterprise had contributed conspicuously to the past and present sources of Bristol's material prosperity. Geography,1 history and The pamphlets are obtainable from most Bristol booksellers, economics had comlbined to sustain the dity as a point of con­ from the shop in the City Museum, from the Porters' Lodges iin the centration of an interest that, both then as now, can be more Wills Memorial Building and in the Senate House, or direct from readily denounced than defined. Mr. Peter Harris, 74, Bell Barn Road, Stoke Bishop,. Bristol 9. Twentieth century historians ha·ve too often transmuted into Readers are asked to help the work by placing standing orders with fact such claims, made in the heat of partisan conflict, as Chatles Mr. Harris. - ,·1:tt,,..,.l,.�..,..., ... .,,._,.... .,.,.,.,., ... .,............ Pinney's assertion in 1830 that five-eighths ofthe port's trade was . ,Mlf.)��coi.:·.r-�lv u:;r;,.i wt with the West Indies. It was undoubtedly consideralble, and the ��=-- - ----·--- -· - -�· .. ··-----· ' destruction of the West India trade could be predicted, in propa- l -4 DEC 1975 © PeterMarshall 1 ; Clu�s J �/:;i. F�Hoc-· .-5--jS-up- pl-, - - - s �- o . ganda for the 1830 election, as certain to prove fatal to Bristol's a fraction of the West Indian assets of the principal owners. Com­ economic existence: mercial houses such as Thomas and John Daniel, Baillie and You are no doulbt aware, Fellow Citizens, that BRISTOL owes ALL Ames, Miles and Kington, the Pinneys, Richard Bright, Charles her prosperity, nay, I had almost said, her existenc� to her_ com­ and Waliter Bernard, Benjamin Bickley, JaQ1es Cunningham, merce with the WEST INDIES. Without iit she must smk to nse no more. Pidn.we to y,our imagination, her now c,rowded streets, grass­ Philip and George Protheroe, had acquired slaves and plantations grown, and deso!Jate-her gl,i.ttering shops deserted,. and t;he doors as a consequence of trade, often as a means of salvaging credit ,shut in her Srtree;bs!!!l borne away by that flood of bankruptcies incurred by the planting Nevertheless, its proportion defies precise cttilculation. interest. Jefferson's definition oif Virginian fortunes on the eve of Constituted in the substantial, often overlapping categories of the Revolution was echoed in Sir George Stephen's description of a!bsentee owner, shipping interest, mercantile and banking houses, the p1'anters' financial situation on the eve o:f Emancipation. and manufacturer, the West Ind'ia interest was prominent in the ...The ,col,onial internst did not reside in the c,oloniies .. The· con­ po'liti'Cal and economic life of the city ,to a degree al?proached o�ly signees and mortgagees .of West India proper:ty resided in London, Liverpool,, and Glasgow. Bri,stol too was a favoured spo:t, and the by three other British ports. It is, however, impossrble to provide slaves were scal'lcely more the property of the planters, than the more than a vague indication of the extent and value of the con­ planters themselves were the proiperty of the consignees and cr,edi­ necVion with the Caribbean. The importance of Bristol in the tors on tms side of the Aitliainitic.1 national commerce wiVh that region can be deduced from the Although it is impossible to declare the extent of this interest, assessment laid upon its West India Association in 1833 as a con­ debts may have contributed more than property to Bristofian tribution towards meeting the costs oif the fight against abolition. holdings in the Caribbean. Direct parti' cipatfon there would seem The four principal ports-London, Glasgow, Uverpoo'l and Bristol to have been confined to a smaJ:l group, if the membership of the -were to divide ,the expense on a pro raita basis, payment being Bristol West India Association is any guide: this stood at only 29 according to the proport'ion of West India products entering the in 1832, including one of the .dty's members of parliament and country through each of them. Bristol's contribution was fixed at seven counciMors. 2 In times o:f conflict the West Indian case cou1ld a little below 18 % . 2 A more specific source of information might easily obtain a public hearing for, as the secretary of the West seem to be offered by the lists indicating the ownership, number India Association pointed out, this was availiable through the and value of slaves for whom compensation was paid as a condi­ editors of Felix Parley's Bristo/, Journal, "whose columns are al­ tion orf Emancipation, but the details thus provided are both woe­ ways open Ito any Artide 'in favor oif the Colonial} Interest ..." 3 fully inadequate and almost certainly delusive. Ownership was If chal'lenged, the Bristol West Indians could by use of position often a mere facade, concealing the reality of mortgaged property and connections mount a formidableresistance. and persistent creditors, and in any event the lists do not indicate ! By 1830 the need for vigilance had become evident. The with­ the whereabouts of the ostensibJe claimant. By means which can­ drawal orf the ageing WHbetforce from leadership o!f the parlia­ not lay any claim to precision I have credited Bristolians with mentary agitation in 1822, giving way to Thomas Powell BuXJton, receiving payment of some £422,950 in respect of 15,533 slaves.s i J and the esm!bli'sh:ment in the following year of the Society for the Since the tota: outfay throughout the Empire amounted to £20 Mitigation and Abolition of Slavery throughout the British million for 780,933 slaves, this estimate of direct Bristol interest Dominions, marked the renewal of national opposition to the amounts to no more than 2-2½% of the investment in slavery. maintenance orf slavery. The new society replaced the African But, accurate or not, the sum received for slaves represented only Institution, an organisation which, according to Stephen, had been rendered impotent by the respootalb'itity of its memlbers: "they 1. "Balil!liie and Bris:tJo,l Forever", Pl1aeia:rd, Bristol Elections 1830, Bristol Central Referenice Library. 1. George Ste!pihen, Antislavery RecoUections (London, 1854), p.