Abolition and Emancipation
Enslaved Africans in the Americas did not accept “their station in life”. Right from the start of the slave trade, they began resisting their enslavement. By the late 18th century, rebellions were commonplace throughout America and the Caribbean. Traders, planters and overseers were finding the resistance increasingly unmanageable.
Planters were losing money as hundreds of slaves freed themselves, leaving the plantations for a better life in the mountains. The runaway slaves joined forces with the Maroons and invaded the plantations, taking what they needed, burning property and attacking planters and their staff. The planters were forced to make treaties with the Maroons, which they seldom kept.
Humanitarian campaigns in the Caribbean, America and Europe were gaining support. The campaign in North America and the Caribbean were led mainly by the Black churches. In Britain, many people believed that slavery was bad. These petitioners included the Anti-Slavery Society, which was founded in 1823 and widely supported by the Quakers.
Wealthy merchants in Britain, and others who profited from slavery, led a counter-campaign. The “West Indian Lobby” of plantation owners and their supporters in the British Parliament fought against abolition. Even though slave trading was abolished in 1807, illegal trading continued for a further sixty years. A quarter of the Africans enslaved between 1500 and 1870 were transported across the Atlantic after the abolition of the slave trade.
The governor of Jamaica did little to implement Britain’s laws. This led to more unrest and in western Jamaica, Samuel Sharpe (a Baptist preacher and slave) organised a strike in December 1831. That strike grew into one of the biggest slave rebellions on the island - it was also the last rebellion. Samuel Sharpe was hanged and a number of white Baptist missionary leaders were charged for inciting the rebellion. It was only when Britain started to enforce the laws by military means that the pressures of slavery was eased.
