Chapter 9 of Hochschild's Bury the Chains talks about Clarkson's trip to an elegant London dinner party of Bennet Langton in an effort to talk to a member of the House of Commons by the name of William Wilberforce. Wilberforce was a wealthy Anglican who was also close friends with William Pitt, the prime minister and the abolitionists believed he would be a good person to approach to bring their cause to the floor of Parliament. He did help the abolitionists greatly and a few years down the line West Indian planters would burn him in effigy. Wilberforce himself was somewhat of a paradox in that he was such a strong conservative that he even thought of plays as pernicious, but yet was in support of the abolitionists' cause. The chapter then returns to Clarkson who had completed his moral case against the slave trade but now was making an effort to develop a practical case against it. The chapter then moves to a familiar face, John Newton who, 34 years after the fact wrote a forceful pamphlet showing regret for, and speaking out against, the slave trade. Hochschild then uses Newton to prove the point that a strong social movement can awaken the conscience. While, getting the support of Newton was a great boon for the abolitionists they also had more recent and equally disturbing tales from his ally Alexander Falconbridge on the horrors of the slave trade. The chapter then moves to two former slaves Equiano and Cagoano, who spoke against slavery. Cagoano wrote a book that had a small recount of his experiences being enslaved, but mainly about his feelings of the immorality of slavery.
The end of the chapter talks about a bill authored by William Dolben that passed the parliament that served to regulate the slave trade. The regulations included limiting the number of slaves it could carry, and requiring every ship to have a doctor as well as to keep a register of slave and crew deaths. Some among the abolitionists feared that these regulations would make people believe the slave trade was just, just abused. In any event the bill was passed and those such as Equiano felt that some regulation was better then none at all.
2 comments:
Good summary, Maybe a little about why you feel the author tells this story. But overall very good and consise.
I didn't really focus on the transformation of John Newton but now, after reading two other blogs, i've seen that Newton made a signifcant transformation. As i posted on george's blogs, this whole process (the abolition movement) was a domino effect. One person took the step forward to create the committee, which influenced the quakers to join, which led to the meeting of members of parliament, which led to bills being passed and on and on. Newton changed because everyone around him was starting to change.
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