Secondary: Rapid Response Assemblies
Thy Kingdom come -
The 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade
By Stuart Kerner
 Suitable for Whole School
Aim
To mark the importance of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade.
Preparation and materials
Background information
The British were actively involved in the transatlantic slave trade, particularly in the Caribbean and North America, for around 200 years.
The exact numbers of Africans shipped overseas during the course of the slave trade are hotly debated – estimates range between 10 and 28 million. What is undisputed is the degree of savage cruelty endured by men, women and children. Up to 20 per cent of those chained in the holds of the slave ships died before they even reached their destination.
Granville Sharp initiated a court case in 1772 that effectively ended slavery in England and this was followed by the passing of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 1807. After this, British captains who were caught continuing the trade were fined £100 for every slave found on board. However, this law did not stop the British slave trade. If slave-ships were in danger of being captured by the Royal Navy, captains often avoided paying the fines by having the slaves thrown overboard.
Furthermore, far from ‘abolishing’ the slave trade, it is often argued that the Act opened the way for others to muscle in on the trade. The result was that slaves continued to be carried across the Atlantic, mainly to Cuba and Brazil, for a further 60 years.
Some people involved in the anti-slave trade campaign argued that the only way to end the suffering of the slaves was to make slavery illegal. A new Anti-Slavery Society was formed in 1823. Members included Thomas Clarkson, Henry Brougham, William Wilberforce, Thomas Fowell Buxton, Elizabeth Heyrick, Mary Lloyd, Jane Smeal, Elizabeth Pease and Anne Knight.
Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833. This act gave all slaves in the British Empire their freedom. The British government paid compensation to the slave owners. The amount that their previous owners received depended on the number of slaves that they had. For example, the Bishop of Exeter was paid £12,700 for his 665 slaves.
In the United States of America, the issue of slavery was more complicated and contributed to civil war between the abolitionist northern states and the pro-slavery south, thereby delaying a unified resolution.
Slavery was eventually abolished in the USA in 1865 by the 13th Amendment to the constitution. But it was not until 1888 – when slavery was banned in Brazil – that the trade was outlawed across the American continent.
Assembly
- The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed on 25 March 1807. To commemorate this momentous event a film about the life of William Wilberforce has been made; it’s called Amazing Grace.
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Wilberforce was a deeply religious English Member of Parliament and social reformer who worked hard for the abolition of the slave trade. For many people, he is the single most important person in the struggle to free the slaves.
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But Wilberforce was not the only person involved in pushing to bring freedom to the slaves.
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If you’ve ever watched the news when MPs are being interviewed by the Palace of Westminster you might have caught sight of a small structure with a spire on the green next to the Victoria Tower. This is actually a very fancy fountain called the Buxton Memorial Fountain. (You might like to show a picture of the fountain.)
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It was built in 1865 as a memorial to those responsible for the abolition of slavery in the British Empire and, in particular, a man called Thomas Fowell Buxton.
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Buxton argued that the only way to end the suffering of slaves was to abolish slavery altogether, not merely the trade – a point of view initially denied by Wilberforce.
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As well as being involved in the anti-slavery movement, Thomas Buxton also opposed capital punishment. He helped to get the number of crimes punishable by death reduced from more than two hundred to just eight.
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You can see Buxton on the back of a five-pound note. He is the figure wearing glasses in the group on the left-hand side of Elizabeth Fry (who was most famous as a prison reformer).
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But why, you might ask, if this is the two-hundredth anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, does the fountain commemorate the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834? And also why has William Wilberforce been singled out as the man responsible for the freedom of the slaves?
The answers are quite simple.
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First, 2007 marks the abolition of the slave trade, but the 1807 Act failed to address the situation of the 800,000 slaves already held in British colonies overseas. Slavery continued for several more decades until the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833, which meant slaves across the British Empire were finally set free.
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Second, what gets into the public memory depends very much on what a society chooses to put there. Wilberforce’s biography, written by his two sons, caught the popular imagination and ensured his name would always be associated with these events. It is also often the case that those who help to start movements tend to get remembered more than those who bring them to a successful conclusion.
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So, the decision to attack the trade rather than slavery itself was really just a smaller tactic. Important though it was, Britain’s withdrawal from the slave trade was merely one among a succession of achievements, just as Wilberforce was only one among a succession of anti-slavery leaders.
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Of course, the point of such commemorations as these is not really to do with names and dates and details of who is responsible. It is more to do with how we, as God’s people, have developed and matured through the course of earthly history.
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Christians believe that God is eternal and sees the whole of human history (much as a plane sees the contours of the land) in a way that we don’t. It can take a long time to right wrongs – more often it does not usually happen in one go. But whether slavery ended in 1807, 1833 or at any other point in between is not the issue. The fact that it ended at all is the key.
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These times in history are turning points when the human race moves forward and the time of the coming of the Kingdom draws a little nearer.
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Although the Bible says little to condemn slavery specifically (and in some cases seems actually to condone it), St Paul said: ‘In God the distinctions between Jew and Gentile, slave and free man, male and female, disappear; you are all one in Christ Jesus.’
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Of course, the truth is that slavery did not end; it still exists in many parts of the world today. It is estimated that 27 million human beings are currently enslaved worldwide.
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The knowledge that our fellow beings, created in God’s image, are – even in the twenty-first century – being traded as possessions and kept as objects diminishes us all.
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In order to bring God’s Kingdom ever closer we must all take responsibility, just as Wilberforce and Buxton and many others did two hundred years ago.
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Indeed, we must fight all forms of injustice, poverty and greed, and resolve to bring about a time when all people are one in Jesus: free, uniquely special creations of God living in his Kingdom.
Time for reflection
‘With ordinary talents and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable.’
Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton
Prayer
Lord God,
We know that you have made human beings with dignity
and that slavery is a terrible injustice.
Give strength to those of us who are not enslaved
to fight for the rights of those who are.
Liberator Lord, hear us, help us and set your children free through us.
Amen.
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