Birmingham Black History - We Made a Difference

We Made a Difference

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The anti-slavery movement in England started well before 1807 and didn't end until after 1834, other countries took longer to end slavery. (see timelime)

During this era many groups played their part to dismantle the trade, some were the slaves themselves via resistence and rebellion. Some of which may have helped to make some parts of the Transatlanic trade economically unviable therefore at various times these plantation workers formed themselves into groups to plan how they could end their terrible working conditions and treatment.

The plantation workers united together to revolt with one of them taking lead knowing that if they were unsuccessful they would probably be killed. This is a very important factor to remember because the UK campaign became focused under one leader: William Wilberforce who only had his reputation to lose.

Slave Revolts
Maroon Wars
Haiti Revolution - lead by Toussaint L'Ouverture
Underground Railway
Morant Bay Rebellion
Tacky's Rebellion 1760
The Middle passage (the afrikan's as cargo trying to uprise against the crew)
and various uprisings in Southern USA and the Caribbean Islands

map79 Major Caribbean slave revolts from - 'Atlas of Slavery' by James Walvin

'Atlas of Slavery' by James Walvin includes a good chapter on the revolts in the caribbean and usa. He also suggests in his book that an important factor in many of the uprisings by the plantation workers were that they were still keeping elements of their past afrikan traditions alive, if they were taken away: conflict.

During, the late 18th century was when the abolitionists and anti-slavery movement gathered momentum as many individuals involved came together to form powerful groups or were part of established groups. These included:

   1. Quakers
   2. Lunar Society
   3. Female Society for Birmingham (aka Birmingham Ladies Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves)
   4. Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade
   5. Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery

These groups were all in the United Kingdom, hence they were able to use the written word as propaganda against the inhumane trade and to raise the awareness for political lobbying. The pinnacle moments were the passing of the 1807 and 1834 Acts. The Revolutionary Players website documents how signatures and petitions were gathered to highlight the campaign and influence the government (see Links page)

Even through the abolition era seemed to be dominated by white males, there was another side to the story, and white women, slaves and former slaves completed it.

The Midlands had a number of females, that formed their own groups, who attended the male dominated groups, one such group was Female Society for Birmingham, many of their documents still survive in the Birmingham City Council Archives and have been highlighted in Revolutionary Players website. (see Links page)

The narratives by some of the freed slaves also helped with the anti-slavery movement see "I made a difference".

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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 14 February 2007 )

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