WALES, WILBERFORCE AND THE SLAVE TRADE
Dr Graham Cope, a Cowbridge u3a member, assured his u3a History audience in his recent presentation “Wales, Wilberforce and the Slave Trade” that no ships from Welsh ports carried slaves; that was left to vessels from Bristol and Liverpool. Unfortunately, Swansea copper, Merthyr iron, Welsh coal and woollen textiles (including “Welsh plains”, from which clothes for enslaved workers in the New World were fashioned), were all part of the slave trade triangle. Welsh slate covered buildings used to house slaves in the West Indies.
Goods from Britain were shipped to West Africa to be traded for slaves (sold by fellow Africans), who were then transported to the New World. Britain received rum, cotton and sugar as payment for the human cargo.
Over a period of 400 years, it is estimated 11-13 million African slaves crossed the Atlantic – many did not survive the voyage, being transported in exceedingly overcrowded conditions. If fewer than 20% of slaves died, it was considered a good trip.
William Wilberforce was born in Hull 1759 into a well-off family. He was a small, sickly and delicate child. His father was a partner in a business that imported raw sugar from plantations in the West Indies.
After the death of his father when William was 12, he spent a period living with relatives in Wimbledon. Here he became influenced by non-conformism, to the dismay of his mother. He was recalled to Yorkshire.
In October 1776, at the age of 17, Wilberforce went up to St John's College, Cambridge, where he befriended William Pitt the Younger, a future Prime Minister. The deaths of his grandfather and an uncle had left William independently wealthy and, as a result, he had little inclination or need to apply himself to serious study.
Probably encouraged by Pitt, Wilberforce began to consider a political career while still at university. In 1780, at the age of twenty-one, Wilberforce was elected Member of Parliament for Kingston upon Hull. He sat as an independent, voting on measures according to their merits.
It was around 1784-5 that, after his earlier interest in evangelical religion, Wilberforce's journey to faith seems to have begun afresh. He sought guidance from John Newton, a leading evangelical Anglican clergyman and abolitionist (perhaps best known for the hymn “Amazing Grace”). Both Newton and Pitt (another anti-slavery advocate) advised Wilberforce to remain in politics.
Inspired by his new faith, Wilberforce was growing interested in humanitarian reform. It was suggested by his brother-in-law, Sir Charles Middleton, that he proposed the abolition of the slave trade in Parliament. William met with influential abolitionists such as Hannah More and Thomas Clarkson.
In 1788, he was taken ill with regular bouts of gastrointestinal illnesses, now thought to be ulcerative colitis. Opium proved effective in alleviating his condition.
The Napoleonic Wars diverted attention from the abolition of slavery, as Parliament concentrated on the threat of invasion. However, Wilberforce continued to introduce abolition bills throughout the 1790s, without much success.
The new century brought the introduction in 1807 of the Slave Trade Act, which stopped the carrying of captives in British ships to be sold as slaves.
Public support grew for immediate abolition rather than the gradual approach favoured by Wilberforce, Clarkson and their colleagues. There were boycotts of sugar; Iolo Morganwg of Cowbridge was one activist.
As the decades passed, Wilberforce became increasingly frail. It was a mere three days before his death in London in 1833 that he heard that the Bill for the Abolition of Slavery in Parliament was certain to be passed. This Act would abolish slavery in most of the British Empire from August 1834. Plantation owners received £20 million in compensation.
Wilberforce Memorial Westminster Abbey William Wilberforce, lauded as a humanitarian reformer, was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to his friend Pitt.
Of course, slavery hasn’t ceased, it’s just less obvious. Estimates are that nearly 50 million are in modern slavery worldwide, including 10,000 in the UK, with 22 million in forced marriages.
Steve Monaghan