6 - Officers’ contributions to Britain's anti-slavery culture

Summary

This study of the personal experiences of naval officers has thus far been mainly situated in West Africa and its coastline. The focus now switches to Britain, and officers’ contributions to the metropolitan discourses about slavery and abolition taking place there in the early to mid-nineteenth century. While the history of the British anti-slavery movement is the subject of much scholarship, less clear are the connections between the Royal Navy and the various anti-slavery networks in existence. Indeed, in many ways the work of the West Africa squadron represented, in Robert Burroughs's words, ‘an unlikely union’ between the inherently conservative navy and the socially progressive anti-slavery societies. Yet militarism and humanitarianism combined in this British enterprise, and the Royal Navy was at the operational frontline of Britain's anti-slavery cause. Building on the theme of naval officers playing an important part in the social and cultural history of the West African campaign, this chapter will look at the extent to which abolitionist societies and interest groups operating in Britain during the first half of the nineteenth century forged relationships with naval officers in the field, and why they regarded it as prudent and necessary to do so. After the Abolition Act of 1807, anti-slavery societies regrouped, and extra-parliamentary efforts in support of abolitionism that were prevalent in the late eighteenth century – such as petitioning, public meetings and membership of societies – continued. The aspirations of British abolitionists changed alongside the understandings of ‘abolitionism’ and ‘anti-slavery’, particularly given the impact of the Emancipation Act of 1833. Naval officers of the West Africa squadron contributed to this ever-evolving anti-slavery culture: through support of societies and by providing key testimonies and evidence about the unrelenting transatlantic slave trade.

Relationships with anti-slavery societies

British naval officers were involved in abolitionist networks before 1807. Lieutenant John Clarkson, for example, brother of the abolitionist Thomas, was influential in the founding of Freetown in 1788, acted as an agent of the Sierra Leone Company, and until 1792 served as the colony's first Governor. Clarkson was also tasked with securing and transporting volunteers from black communities in Nova Scotia to settle in the area in 1791–92.3 Lieutenant Philip Beaver was part of a group of six British naval and military men of radical political beliefs who in 1792 formed the Bolama Assocation, with a desire to establish themselves as colonists on the West African coast.