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The Abolition of Negro Slavery and British Parliamentary Politics 1832–3

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Izhak Gross
Izhak Gross
Affiliation:
University of Haifa
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Extract

The so-called ‘decade of reform’ witnessed far-reaching changes not only in Britain's domestic affairs but also in the colonial sphere. This applied particularly to the sugar colonies. Until the early 1830s the economy and society of those colonies had rested upon two main pillars – slave labour and a protected market for their produce in the United Kingdom. Yet within a few years the first of these pillars was completely destroyed, the second was already beginning to crumble, and the old ruling classes in the sugar colonies were in a state of frustration, rapidly despairing of the possibility of adapting themselves to the new situation.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , March 1980 , pp. 63 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

1 The British sugar colonies in the period after 1815 were Jamaica, Trinidad, Tobago, Barbados, the British Leeward and Windward Islands, British Guiana, and Mauritius.

2 Temperley, H., British anti-slavery, 1833–1870 (London, 1973), p. 10Google Scholar; Stephen, Sir G., Anti-slavery recollections (London, 1854), pp. 120–1, henceforth cited as RecollectionsGoogle Scholar; Richard, H., Memoirs of Joseph Sturge (London, 1864), pp. 101 ff. (henceforth Sturge's Memoirs). 0018–246X/80/2828–3160 802.50 © 1980 Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar

3 India, as a sugar producer, was a rival of the West Indies.

4 Most of the sugar-colony proprietors who lived in Britain, the so-called West Indians, belonged to the ‘Society of West India Merchants and Planters’, established in the 1770s and headed by a ‘standing committee’ (often also called the West India Committee). The committee was an executive body responsible to the general meeting and it dealt with all political affairs concerning the West Indies.

5 D.J., Murray, The West Indies and the development of colonial government, 1801–1834 (Oxford, 1965), pp. 127–8; Hansard, 2nd series, 15 May 1823, ix, 286, 359.Google Scholar

6 Burn, W. L., The British West Indies (London, 1950), p. 81Google Scholar; Schyler, R. L., Parliament and the British empire (New York, 1929), pp. 168–175; Hansard, 2nd series: 16Mar. 1824.x, 1069, 1165–9; 1 Mar. 1826, xiv, 968–82; 3 Mar. 1826, xiv, 1080; 3rd series: 29 Mar. 1831, III, 1138; 15 Apr. 1831, III, 1425–45; 2nd Earl Grey's papers/3rd Earl: Howick to Grey, 29 May 1832.Google Scholar

7 For evidence to support the points made in this paragraph see I. M. Gross, ‘Commons and empire 1833–1841’ (Oxford Univ. D.Phil, thesis, 1975), pp. 44 50.

8 Son of a famous abolitionist and the step-brother of James Stephen of the Colonial Office.

9 The Agency Committee was organized in 1831 in defiance of the traditional abolitionist leadership (the general committee of the Anti-Slavery Society), which pursued a very cautious and moderate course. Nevertheless the relations between the two bodies were not hostile.

10 Perkin, H., The origins of modern English society (London, 1969), pp. 280–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Croker, J. W., ‘The present and last parliaments’, Quarterly Review, xLIx (1833), 272.Google Scholar

11 Recollections, pp. 184–5; Colonial slavery: Agency Committee's lists of acceptable and unacceptable candidates, London, 1832; Anti-Slavery Reporter, v (1 Oct. 1832), 290; A. F. Madden, ‘The attitude of the Evangelicals to the empire and imperial problems’ (Oxford University D.Phil, thesis, 1950), p. 254.

12 Higman, B. W., ‘The West India “Interest” in parliament 1807–1833’, Historical Studies, Australia and New Zealand, XIII (1967), 1–19.Google Scholar

13 Thirty M.P.s had a pecuniary interest in the sugar colonies and five were supporters with no such interest.

14 J. Stephen, one of the first ideal types of a modern civil servant, an Evangelical, was legal counsel to the Colonial Office from 1813 to 1834, assistant under-secretary from 1834 to 1836 and permanent under-secretary from 1836 to 1847. Taylor, poet, playwright, and journalist joined the Office in 1824 and remained there for more than fifty years as head of the West Indian desk.

15 Son of prime minister Grey and a future secretary at war and secretary of state for the colonies.

16 3rd Earl Grey's papers/Colonial papers/Slavery: memo by Stephen, Oct. 1831 and memos and papers, July-Nov. 1832; 3rd Earl Grey's papers, C1: Howick to Mulgrave, 21 June and 5 July 1832; 2nd Earl Grey's papers/Ripon: Goderich to Grey, 27 Nov. 1832; 3rd Earl Grey's papers/Colonial papers/Slavery: Goderich to cabinet, 1 Dec. 1832 with papers.

17 2nd Earl Grey's papers/Ripon: Goderich to Grey, 27 Nov. 1832.

18 Both Howick and Taylor assumed that the ex-slave would refuse to work on the plantation even for wages unless compelled (Howick) or educated to voluntary industry (Taylor).

19 Public Record Office, CO. 318/117: printed memo by Howick.

20 CO. 318/117: printed memo By H. Taylor.

21 Taylor, Sir H., Autobiography (London, 1885), 1, 127–9, henceforth Taylor's autobiography.Google Scholar

22 CO. 318/117: pp. 65–7 of the printed memo by Taylor, Jan. 1833.

23 Bodleian MS Eng. letters, d. 7, fos. 167–8, 204–5: Taylor to Howick, 31 Dec. 1832, and Taylor to his father, 7 Jan. 1833; Taylor's autobiography, 1, 128; the memo was nevertheless submitted to Stanley for reading when he became colonial secretary-CO. 318–117: minute by Taylor, 2 Apr. 1833, on printed memo by Taylor, Jan. 1833.

24 3rd Earl Grey's papers/Colonial Papers/Slavery (148/66): minutes of discussions upon slavery of a cabinet committee consisting of Lord Althorp, Lord Goderich, duke of Richmond, Lord Holland, Sir James Graham and Lord John Russell, Jan. 1833 and Howick to Stephen, 20 Jan. 1833.

25 TheGreville memoirs, eds. Strachey, L. and Fulford, R. (London, 1938), 11, 346, 353 (henceforth Greville memoirs): entries for 26 Jan., 4 Feb. 1833; CO. 318/116: Standing Committee of West India Merchants and Planters to Earl Grey, 31 Jan. 1833Google Scholar; LeMarchant, Sir D., Memoir of John Charles, Viscount Althorp, 3rd Earl Spencer (London, 1876), p. 470 (henceforth Althorp's memoir); Bucks County Record Office, Goderich papers: Howick to Goderich (3 Feb. 1833) and memo by Goderich, 4 Feb. 1833; CO. 318/116: Goderich to West India Body, 4 Feb. 1833.Google Scholar

26 Buxton, C., Memoirs of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton Bart, with selections from his correspondence (London, 1848), p. 301 (henceforth Buxton's memoirs): memo, 3 Feb.Google Scholar

27 Ibid. pp. 302–3: Buxton to Gurney, 7 Feb. 1833; Rhodes House, MSS Brit. Emp. S 20, E2/4 (Anti-Slavery Papers, minute book of the Committee of the Anti-Slavery Society), p. 8: entry for 6 Feb. 1833; The mirror of parliament (henceforth Mirror), 6 Feb. 1833, 1, 65.

28 Buxton's memoirs, pp. 303, 3 0 7; Recollections, pp. 189–93.

29 Ellice, a businessmen with financial interests in Canada, India and the sugar colonies, was secretary at war at that period.

30 3rd Earl Grey's papers/Colonial papers/Slavery: ‘Suggestions for an arrangement of the slave question’ by Edward Ellice, 4 Feb. 1833; Bodleian MS film 109 (Graham papers): Ellice to Graham, confidential, 5 and 7 Feb. 1833, and Graham to Ellice, 7 Feb. 1833; C.O. 318/116: Murray to Howick, 25 Feb. 1833, Murray to Goderich, 27 Feb. 1833, and delegation of W. I. Body, comments on the government plan, 2 Mar. 1833; 3rd Earl Grey's papers, Cl: Howick to Mulgrave, 7 Mar.

31 John Moss was one of the biggest estate owners in British Guiana; Patrick Maxwell Stewart was agent for Tobago and an influential member of the W.I.C.

32 3rd Earl Grey's papers, Cl: Howick to John Moss, 2 Mar. 1833.

33 Ibid.

34 Buxton's memoirs, pp. 306, 308; MSS Brit. Emp. S20, E2/4 (minute book of the A.S.S. Cttee), pp. 10–12: entries for 6 and 9 March 1833; Mirror, 1, 4, 14, 15, 18, 19 Mar. 1833: 1, 489, 521, 769–70. 793. 805. 852.

35 3rd Earl Grey's papers, 219: Howick's journal, 23, 24 Mar. 1833.

36 E.G.G. Stanley was a former parliamentary undersecretary of the CO. and a chief secretary for Ireland who, as the 14th earl of Derby, was to become prime minister.

37 2nd Earl Grey's papers/Stanley: Stanley to Grey, 8 Apr. 1833.

38 Bodleian MS Eng. letters, d. 7, fo. 207: Taylor to Miss Fenwick, 12 May 1833; Althorp's memoir, p. 470; 2nd Earl Grey's papers/3rd Earl: Howick to Grey, private, 2 April 1838; ibid. Stanley: Stanley to Grey, 8 April 1833; Mirror 30 May 1833:11, 1994; C O. 318/116: West Indian Delegation's comments.on government plan, 2 March 1833, and W.I. delegation to Stanley, 23 April 1833; CO. 320/8; observation on plan (by Stanley).

39 The W.I. memorials and petitions are filed in CO. 318/115–16; Buxton's memoirs, p. 310; Sturge's memoirs, p. 101.

40 MSS Brit. Emp. S20, E2/4 (minute book of A.S.S. Cttee.), pp. 15, 19–20, 22: entries for 27 Mar., 3 Apr., and 10 Apr. 1833; Buxton's memoirs, p. 321; Journals of the House of Commons, LXXXVHI; Journals of the House of Lords, LXV.

41 CO. 318/116: Addresses of constituents to Strickland, n.d. (April or early May 1833) and electors of Woburn to W. H. Whitebread, n.d. (April or early May 1833).

42 CO. 318/116: memorials and petitions from anti-slavery societies of Kettering, Edinburgh, Leeds, Reading, Liverpool, Portsmouth, Lancaster, Swansea, Dover, Warrington and Sheffield; n; Buxton's memoirs, pp. 317–18; MSS Brit. Emp. S20, E2/4 (minute book of A.S.S. Cttee), p. 22: 3 I entry for 10 April 1833.

43 Althorp's memoir, p. 471; Derby papers, 19/4: Proceedings and resolutions of the W.I. Body

consequent on Mr Secretary Stanley's communication of the outline of the intended measure respecting slavery, 10 May 1833; MSS Brit. Emp. S20, E2/4 (minute book of A.S.S. Cttee), pp. 37–8: entry for 13 May 1833; The Times, 11 and 13 May 1833; Bodleian MS Eng. letters, d. 7, ff. 208–10: Taylor to Miss Fenwick, 12 May 1833 and postcript 13 May 1833; Mirror, 14 May 1844: II, 1783–4.

44 The Times, 13 May 1833; Mirror, 14 May 1833: 11, 1773–91.

45 CO. 318/116: Report of West India Cttee, 16 May 1833; Mirror, 17 May 1833: 11, 1844: Joseph Marrayatt's speech.

46 Mirror, II, 1797–8, 1843–4, 1985–91 1995–2000, 2030–4, 2079–80: speeches by Sir R. Vyvyan, Colonel Leith Hay, J. Maryatt, T. Gladstone, P. M. Stewart, R. Godson, W. E. Gladstone.

47 Mirror, 11, 1798–9, 1992–3, 2002–4, 2070–3, 2078–9, 2082–4: speeches by D. O'Connell, E. R. Petre, Stanley, Buxton, Admiral Fleming, Howick, and Tancred, a king's counsel and M.P. for Banbury.

48 For instance: W. L. Burn, West Indies, pp. 62–70.

49 Mirror, 30 May 1833; 11, 1983; The Morning Chronicle, 28 May 1833, according to which about 1500 merchants and 10 M.P.s attended the meeting.

50 John Gladstone to Mrs Gladstone, 24, 25, 27, 29 May 1833: mentioned by S. G. Checkland, The Gladstones: a family biography 1764–1851 (Cambridge, 1971) P–274; Mirror, II, 2001–2, 2036–7.

51 Mirror, 11, 1994–5.

52 Mirror, 30 and 31 May 1833: 11, 2005–6, 2037–40.

53 This argument had perhaps been true a century earlier but by 1833 it was certainly untrue, cf. R. P. Thomas, ‘The sugar colonies of the old empire: profit or loss for Great Britain’, Economic History Review, 2nd series, xxi (1968), 30–45; R. B. Sheridan, ‘The wealth of Jamaica in the 18th century: a rejoinder’, ibid, xxi (1968), 46–61.

54 The Gladstone diaries, ed. M. R. D. Foot (Oxford, 1968), 11, 32–3: entries for I, 3 and 7 June; Mirror, 11, 2077, 2081–2, 2085–9, 2192–3; speeches by T. Fitzgerald, W. E. Gladstone, P. M. Stewart, Peel, J. Marryatt; CO. 318/116: Murray and others to Stanley, 3 June 1833; Mirror, III 2202–3.

55 Mirror, 11 June 1833, m, 2223–35: speeches by George Pryme, John Jervis, Richard Potter, Rigby Wason, and Colonel De Lacy Evans-‘economists’; W. W. Whitmore and G. R. Robinson -East Indians; W. Clay - sugar refiners’ representative; W. Ewart-free trader.

56 Of the 77 M.P.s who voted against the grant no less than 53 supported at least one of the abolitionist motions on apprenticeship.

57 Mirror, 11 June 1833: in, 2226–33.

58 Journals of the House of Commons, 12 June 1833, LXXXVIH, 482: CO. 318/116: Combermere (chairman of the W.I.C.) to Stanley, 15 June 1833, and Stanley to St Vincent, 29 June 1833. Greville memoirs, 11, 382: entry for igjune; The Times, 11 July 1833: report of a West India meeting held on 10 July; CO. 28/111: L. Smith to Stanley, confidential, 13 July 1833: The old colonies were Barbados, Nevis, Antigua, Montserrat and St Kitts. The new colonies were Dominica, Grenada and St Vincent (conquered in 1760–3), and Trinidad, Tobago, St Lucia and Guiana (conquered in 1803). Also there was Jamaica, which sympathized with the interest of the old and densely populated colonies. The current prices of slaves in the new colonies were much higher than in the older and thus if the compensation were divided according to current prices the new colony proprietors would be better off than the Jamaicans and the old colony planters; CO. 318/116: P. Rose to Stanley, 19 June 1833; The Times, 18 July 1833.

59 Mirror, 31 July 1833: iv, 3448–58.

60 Mirror, 3, 7 and 10 June 1833: 11, 2084, 2090–1, and III, 2173, 2186–9, 2197–8, 2201–2; Recollections, pp. 189–203; Buxton's memoirs, pp. 309–26, 353–4. (The policy of moderation was perhaps also partly influenced by Buxton's fear of immediate emancipation.)

61 MSS Brit. Emp. S20E2/4 (minute book of A.S.S. Cttee), pp. 40–1, 42, 45: entry for 16, 23, 31 May and 12 June 1833; Buxton's memoirs, pp. 327–9; 3rd Earl Grey's papers C1, Howick to T. F. Buxton, 9 June 1833.

62 Actually Stanley to the fury of the West Indians had made some concessions by reducing the term of apprenticeship of non-praedial slaves to seven years. The Times, 18 July 1833

63 Buxton's memoirs, p. 330; Recollections, pp. 203–4.

64 Buxton's memoirs, pp. 330–1: Buxton to Thomas Pringle, 16 July: MSS Brit. Emp. S20E2/4 (minute book of the A.S.S. Cttee), p. 57: entry for 20 July 1833, resolution 4; Mirror, 22 July 1833: iv, 3209–13.

65 Minute book of A.S.S. Cttee., p. 55: entry for 17 July 1833; Mirror, IV, 3297–3309; Mirror, 25july: IV, 3327: Stanley; Trevelyan, G. O., The life and letters of Lord Macaulay (London, 1878), 1, 322: T. B. Macaulay to H. M. Macaulay, 25 July 1833; Brit. Mus., Add. MSS44,819 (Gladstone papers), fo. 2; memo by Gladstone on a conversation with Sir A. Grant, 20 Nov. 1837; Mirror, IV, 3325–9.Google Scholar

66 Mirror, IV, 3341–2; G. O. Trevelyan, Lord Macaulay, 1, 322; cf. Mirror, IV, 3344–6: statements by Morpeth, Admiral Fleming and igby Wason.

67 Buxton's memoirs, pp. 333–4; Mirror, 31 July 1833: IV, 3450–8.

68 Unfortunately, as far as the divisions are concerned, only the minority lists are available.

69 Mirror, 3 June and 24 July: II, 2085–9; IV, 3212.

70 Mirror, 11 June: in, 2236: Stanley's remark after four divisions; Greville memoirs, 11, 402: entry for 25–26 July-remarks upon the divisions of 24 and 25 July.

71 Greville memoirs, II, 361: entry for 22 Feb. 1833; Goulbourn papers, 11/18: Peel to Goulburn, 3 Jan. 1833; J. D. C. Newbould, ‘The politics of the cabinets of Grey and Melbourne and ministerial relations with the House of Commons’ (Manchester Univ. Ph.D., 1971), p. 43; E. Herries, Memoir of J. C. Herries (London, 1880), n, 165: Peel to Herries, 1833; Mirror, 3 June 1833: II, 2085–6: Peel.

72 The exceptions were the marquis of Chandos (a former chairman of the West India Committee, who had become an abolitionist, and who voted on the abolitionist side on all the divisions between 10 June and 31 July), and Alexander Baring, a West India proprietor who had also many other economic interests, and who voted against the payment of compensation to the slave owners.

73 The East Indians wished to have their sugar admitted to the British market on the same terms as the West Indians’ (Mirror, 6 March 1833:1, 600–1), while the manufacturers and many of the shipowners wished to abolish the West Indian monopoly as a means to increase and facilitate their trade with the sugar producing countries, particularly Brazil (Mirror, 24 July 1833: 11, 3289–91). Cf. E. Williams, Capitalism and slavery (Chapel Hill, 1944), pp. 154 ff.

74 Colonel Davies, W. Woolryche Whitmore and G. R. Robinson-Mirror, 10, 11 June 1833: in, 2203, 2223–4, 2234.

75 The two cotton manufacturers who did not join the opposition, William Boiling of Bolton and Thomas Houldsworth of Notts, were also the only tories among the cotton manufacturers in the House, and it seems that they shared the attitudes of the majority of their party towards the government's emancipation scheme.

76 Mirror, 6 Mar., I Aug. 1833: I, 580, 600 and IV, 3481.

77 J. Silk Buckingham, W. Clay, M. Philips, J. Pease and J. Fielden.

78 For instance, 58 of the 71 ministerialists who opposed compensation on 11 June were classified by Dod'sparliamentary companion (London, 1833) as reformers, radicals, and repealers. So also were 95 of the 139 ministerialists who supported Buxton on 24 July.

79 Greville memoirs, 11, 401: entry for 25 26 July; similar views on the influence of pledges and constituency pressure on the emancipation issue were also expressed in parliament Mirror, 30, 31 May and 11 June 1833: 11, 1992, 2039, and III, 2235; Gladstone records in his diary a conversation with one of the supporters of the abolitionists in the House, W. Tooke, M.P. for Truro, who seemed to view the whole issue ‘in one practical aspect that which embraces its relation to the hustings’, Gladstone diaries, II, II: entry for 13 Jan. 1833.

80 For instance the East Indian Colonel Davies and the West Indian shipowner G. F. Young Mirror, 26 Apr., 31 May 1833: 11, 1472, 2039–40.

81 Recollections, pp. 191, 221; Sturge's memoirs, pp. 8 & 95; CO. 318/117, fo. 85: printed memo by H. Taylor, Jan. 1833; The great majority of the petitions came either from Nonconformist-particularly Methodist bodies or from English and Welsh urban constituencies. See, for instance, the 500 petitions of 14 May 1833, Journals of the House of Commons, LXXXVMI, 386 9.

82 Sources: the minority lists are taken from Hansard and Mirror; the socio-economic, demographic and territorial classification of the constituencies is based on the data in C. R. Dod, Electoral facts 1832–1853 impartially stated, ed. H. J. Hanham (London, 1972); the religious classification is based on Parliamentary papers 1852–3, LXXXIX: Census of Great Britain: religious worship, England and Wales, 1851. It must be remembered, however, that in the 1830s the Dissenters constituted a somewhat higher proportion of the whole Protestant population than in 1851–ibid, pp. xxxix and cxliv.

83 Recollections, p. 221.

84 Mirror, II, 2039.

85 66% of the 21 boroughs had very big and 24% had big Dissenting congregations.

86 Cowherd, R. G., The politics of English Dissent (London, 1959), pp. 46–60Google Scholar; Edwards, M., After Wesley (Epworth, 1935)Google Scholar; Armstrong, A., The Church of England, the Methodists and society (Totowa, N.J., 1973). PP. 196–7.Google Scholar

87 See note 76 above.

88 See p. 78 above.

89 The two exceptions were Kendal and Whitehaven.

90 Mirror, 30 May 1833: 11, 1984–5.

91 CO. 318/117, fo. 65: printed memo by Taylor, Jan. 1833; Mirror, 14 Aug. 1833:IV, 3768–71; 3 and 4 Wm. IV, c. 73.