NEW slavery-dependent colonies sprang up in North America and the Caribbean in the decades that followed; in 1713, as a prize of war the British Government even demanded from France the lucrative Asiento contract to supply slaves to Spain’s American colonies.*
By a quirk of fate, this proved slavery’s downfall. When Charles Stewart brought James Somersett home to England from Boston, James escaped. He was recaptured, but campaigner Granville Sharp demanded that Stewart justify James’s imprisonment in court. In 1772, Lord Mansfield, the Chief Justice, refused to recognise Stewart’s rights in the matter, and James went free.*
Anxious British colonial landowners prophesied economic catastrophe, but Tory MP William Wilberforce and his ‘Clapham Sect’ won the economic and moral arguments.* Clergy, statesmen, industrialists and men of science and letters became increasingly vocal, and public opinion backed them up.* In 1807, William Grenville saw through Parliament an empire-wide ban on trading slaves;* in 1833 Earl Grey secured legislation ending slavery itself;* and from that moment eradicating slavery became a defining policy of the British Empire.
* It was a condition of the Peace of Utrecht in 1713 that ended The War of the Spanish Succession. The contract, originally between Spain and her wartime ally France, was for 33 years, and saw London promise 4,800 slaves per annum in exchange for a monopoly on the trade. The deal was renewed in 1748 but rights were sold off two years later. Responsibility for it was held by the South Sea Company, which then had to find other ways of raising money: see The South Sea Bubble.
* For more details, see Somerset’s Case. The case did not establish that slavery was illegal, but it did mean that English courts would not help slave-owners enforce their claims of ownership.
* See posts tagged William Wilberforce.
* For examples of British anti-slavery campaigning, see posts tagged Abolition of Slavery.
* William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville (1759-1834), Prime Minister from 1806 to 1807. The 1807 Act received Royal Assent on March 25th, the Feast of the Annunciation or ‘Lady Day’, and at one time the first day of the New Year in England.
* Charles Grey (1764-1845), 2nd Earl Grey, Prime Minister from 1830 to 1834. The Act of 1833 received Royal Assent on August 28th that year, but did not come into force until August 1st the following year.