Category Archives: Slavery

Slavery in New France

22 Monday Jun 2020

Posted by in Indigenous People, New France, Racism, Slavery

≈ 6 Comments

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New_France_4_3_Overseer-and-slaves-Latrobe-500x350

Labouring under the eye of the overseer, end of the eighteenth century (Photo and caption credit: Virtual Museum of New France, Slavery)

The image above can be found in Arnaud Bessière’s[1] entry on Slavery, in the Virtual Museum of New France, Slavery. Bessière’s document is short and authoritative. Morever, it is bilingual. I have used it to create this post. There were slaves in New France, but most were the Indigenous people of North America who themselves owned slaves.

Slave-owning people of what became Canada were, for example, the Yurok, a fishing society, who lived along the Pacific coast from Alaska to California or the Northwest Coast.

Some of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, the Haida and Tlingit, were traditionally known as fierce warriors and slave-traders, raiding as far as California. Slavery was hereditary, the slaves being prisoners of war and their descendants were slaves. Some nations in British Columbia continued to segregate and ostracize the descendants of slaves as late as the 1870s.
(see Slavery in Canada, Wikipedia).

Slavery among Amerindians may not have been as ingrained a cultural element in the native population of North America Northeastern coast, but Amerindians living on the shores of the St Lawrence had slaves. It was not uncommon for an Amerindian friend to give a slave to a French colonist. These Amerindians were members of the First Nations.

Let us see the numbers.

Before the Conquest of New France by the British in 1659,[2] New France had 4,000 slaves, but 1,123 were Blacks and the remainder, 2,472, Aboriginals. After the Conquest, French- speaking Canadians owned 1,509 of which 181 were English. These are Marcel Trudel’s numbers, quoted in Slavery in Canada (Wikipedia). Marcel Trudel also notes 31 marriages between French colonists and Aboriginal slaves (see Slavery in Canada, Wikipedia).

After the Conquest of Canada by Britain (1759), formalized by the Treaty of Paris (1763), French Canadians owned 181 Black slaves and 1,509 Amerindian slaves. So, as Bessière writes, no slave ship sailed down the St. Lawrence River.

Despite colonial officials’ oft-reiterated yearning to have African slaves imported to the colony, no slave ship ever reached the St. Lawrence valley.

Bessière also writes that

[t]hose black slaves who arrived in the region came from the neighbouring British colonies, from which they were smuggled or where they were taken as war captives. A number of Canadian merchants also brought black slaves back from their business trips to the south, in Louisiana or in the French Caribbean.

Lower Canada: the First Black Citizen & the First Black Slave

  • Mathieu da Costa
  • Olivier le Jeune

We know that Mathieu da Costa was the first Black to come to New France. He was not a slave, but a free man of African-Portuguese descent and Canada’s first linguist. As for the first Black slave in New France, he was a six-year old child. The young slave belonged to Sir David Kirke, one of the Brothers Kirke, who blockaded the St. Lawrence during the Anglo-French War of 1627 – 1629. Quebec fell (1628), but Samuel de Champlain argued that the English seizure of his land was unlawful, as the war had already ended when David Kirke took Québec. The territory was therefore returned to France, in 1632.

Oliver le Jeune may have had other owners, but he was last bought by Father Paul le Jeune and then given to one of Nouvelle-France first colonists, perhaps the first, Guillaume Couillard (see Bessière and Slavery in Canada, Wikipedia).

Guillaume Couillard - 03.JPG

Guillaume Couillard, figure au monument Louis-Hébert, parc Montmorency, Québec (Wikipedia)

New France did not have large plantations requiring an enormous work force. It was a semi-feudal society consisting of Seigneuries, long and narrow tracts of land located on both sides of the St Lawrence river. It was owned by the Compagnie des Cent-Associés, the Company of a Hundred Associates, who had a monopoly over the fur-trade. Finally, Black slaves were too expensive for ordinary colonists.

“The company was closely controlled by Richelieu, and was given sweeping authority over trade and colonization in all of New France, a territory that encompassed all of Acadia, Canada, Newfoundland, and French Louisiana. Management was entrusted to twelve directors.” (See Slavery in Canada, Wikipedia)

Consequently, the Black slaves of New France were domestic servants. Moreover, most of the colonists of New France were poor. In Philippe-Aubert de Gaspé‘s 1863 Les Anciens Canadiens (The Canadians of Old), a male Ethiopian is mentioned. Jules d’Haberville’s father was a Seigneur. But to return to Olivier le Jeune, it is believed the child was manumitted (freed) by the Couillard family. He died in 1654.

According to Afua Cooper, author of The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montréal, “enslaved First Nations people outnumbered enslaved individuals of African descent, under French rule. She attributed this to the relative ease with which New France could acquire First Nations slaves. She noted that the mortality of slaves was high, with the average age of First Nations slaves only 17, and the average age of slaves of African descent, 25.”[3]

The Seigneurial System

Farmers, later called cultivateurs, were given thirty acres of land. They paid their rente to their Seigneur and their dîme, to their curés, the parish priest. Their was a Chemin du Roy, but the river was the highway. It linked Quebec-city, Trois-Rivières and the island of Montréal. Under the Seigneurial System, farmers did the work.

Code Noir of 1742, Nantes history museum

Le Code Noir

  • the Panis
  • the Black

The Code Noir, which regulated enslavement in the French colonial empire, was promulgated by Louis XIV, in 1685. The first Code Noir was written by Colbert, but it was amended. It stressed that slaves had to be Catholics or convert to Catholicism. In 1689, New France was granted permission to enslave Blacks. But New France’s slaves were mostly Amerindians, all of whom were called Panis, whether or not they belonged to the Pawnee people. New France had very few slaves in the 17th century, but their numbers grew in the 18th century.

It would be difficult to determine how many Panis were given by Amerindian friends to the citizens of New France and how many were taken by colonists. However, no one can dispute that most slaves in New France were Amerindians rather than Blacks. Slavery and racism can be linked, but Amerindians had Amerindian slaves. Slavery has existed since time immemorial, but the Blacks of New France were owned by Whites. The transatlantic slave trade was human trafficking. It is a practice that has yet to end. La traite des Blanches, white slavery, was/is also human trafficking, and racism cannot be excluded.

transatlantic slave trade

African captives being transferred to ships along the Slave Coast for the transatlantic slave trade, c. 1880. © Photos.com/Thinkstock 

The image above belongs to Britannica.

I have noted that given Canada’s harsh climate, survival is a keyword in both the history New France and English-speaking.[4] In other words, the French, fur traders in particular, depended on Amerindians: birch bark canoes, snowshoes, remedies. Jacques Cartier, Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts and his nagivator, Samuel de Champlain, were provided with thuja occidentalis, when their men were dying of scurvy. As for North America’s natives, they were not immune to certain European illnesses, such as smallpox, a devastating illness.

Arthur de Gobineau.jpg

1876 portrait of Gobineau by the Comtesse de la Tour (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

Slavery vs Racism

Slavery may or may not be racist. However, enslavement is an extreme form of humiliation. So persons who have been slaves may be viewed as inferior.

Joseph Arthur, comte de Gobineau (14 July 1816 – 13 October 1882), the author of Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (Essai sur l’Inégalité des races humaines), believed commoners were inferior to aristocrats. (See Arthur de Gobineau, Wikipedia) and the White race superior to other races. However, although Arthur de Gobineau believed in Aryan supremacy, he did not look upon the Jews as an inferior “race.”

However unsavoury Arthur de Gobineau’ writings, he is associated with Scientific Racism. The 19th century is the birthplace of sociology and related disciplines. Charles Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) developed the science of evolution. His ideas were shocking to many, but more scientific than Gobineau’s who thought the Black race was an inferior race.

The Disappearance of Indigenous Women

At the moment, the disappearance of aboriginal women in Canada is alarming.

“The issue gained increased awareness and attention after Amnesty International published Stolen Sisters: A Human Rights Response to Violence and Discrimination against Indigenous Women in Canada (2004) and No More Stolen Sisters (2009). Research conducted by the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) established a database of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. In 2011, the NWAC database included 582 known cases, most of which had occurred between 1990 and 2010.” (The Canadian Encyclopedia)

The Hanging of Angélique

Marie-Josèphe dite Angélique is Canada’s most famous slave. Marie Josèphe, was a Portuguese slave brought to New England by a Flemish owner who sold her to a Montreal Seigneur, François Poulin de Francheville. When he died, his wife Thérèse de Couagne de Francheville decided to sell Marie-Josèphe to a Quebec City owner. Fearing she would lose the man she loved, an indentured servant whose name was Claude Thibault, the two escaped but were returned to Madame de Francheville, Thérèse de Couagne.

See the source image

Marie-Joseph-Angélique, (Photo credit: The Dictionary of Canadian Biography)

While she was absent, Thérèse de Couagne’s house was destroyed in a fire that spread to a large part of Old Montreal, including l’Hôtel-Dieu, a hospital. Marie-Josèphe was accused of arson. She was a runaway slave. She had run away with Claude Thibault who had been jailed and released. He disappeared. Marie-Josèphe was tried and convicted of arson. She was to be tortured, make amends (amende honorable), and be burned alive. The five-year old daughter of Alexis Monière, Amable, claimed she saw Marie-Josèphe- Angélique transporting coal. Marie-Josèphe-Angélique was tortured and hanged on 21 June 1734.

“The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montréal”

Marie Josèphe’s guilt was questioned by Denyse Beaugrand-Champagne in a book published in 2004. The fire may have started elsewhere. Two years later, in 2006, Dr Afua Cooper, PhD, who was born in Jamaica and is a faculty member at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, published The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montréal. According to Dr Cooper, Marie-Josèphe did set fire to her owner’s house, thus rebelling against her condition: slavery. (See Marie-Joseph Angélique, Wikipedia.)

In Lower Canada (Quebec), Sir James Monk, who could not abolish slavery, “rendered a series of decisions in the late 1790s that undermined the ability to compel slaves to serve their masters…” (See Slavery in Canada, Wikipedia). Later, Sir James Kempt refused a request to return a black slave to the United States. In practice, slavery had ended in Lower Canada.

Slavery was abolished in the British Empire by virtue of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.

Conclusion

There is racism in Canada, including Quebec, but I do not know whether it is “systemic.” The French in Québec, the former Lower Canada, have concentrated on preserving their language. Bill 21 (secularization) led to demonstrations.

RELATED ARTICLES

Sources and Resources

______________________________

[1] Arnaud Bessières, PhD, CIEQ, Virtual Museum of New France, Slavery

[2] Quebec City fell in 1759, but the treaty that ended the Seven Years’ War was
the Treaty of Paris, 1763.

[3] Quoted in Slavery in Canada (Wikipedia)

[4] Margaret Atwood’s Survival, a Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature (1972) applies to both cultures.

Best regards to everyone. 💕
I apologize for the delay. I was very tired.

Dr. Afua Cooper

Afua Cooper (The Canadian Encyclopedia)

© Micheline Walker
Micheline Bourbeau-Walker, PhD
22 June 2020
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American Tragedies

09 Monday Oct 2017

Posted by in American Civil War, Slavery, United States

≈ 14 Comments

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Robert E. Lee (Photo credit: Today.com)

Ironically, as a Presidential hopeful, Donald J. Trump was endorsed by the National Rifle Association of America. He was also endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan, a hate group who participated in the Charlottesville events. By accepting such endorsements, President Trump may have emboldened the killers. Stephen Paddock (9 April 1953 – 1st October 2017) was shooting from the 32nd floor of a hotel, which allowed him to kill or wound many people and complicated the work of the police. Fifty-eight (58) concertgoers are dead and some five hundred were wounded. Mr. Paddock had booked a room at the Mandalay Bay. So far, authorities are at a loss in determining a motive. Stephen Paddock is “unknowable.”

I wish to offer my condolences to the family and friends of the victims of both tragedies. The Last Vegas shooting was by far the bloodier, but although the Charlottesville events did not lead to numerous deaths, they were the more meaningful tragedy.

www.cnn.com/2017/10/06/us/unknowable-stephen-paddock-and-the-mystery-motive/index.html

Charlottesville and the American Civil War

http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war

The Charlottesville tragedy is particularly significant because it is rooted in the American Civil War, the worst of American tragedies. Less than a hundred years after Americans fought the American Revolution, secession was unthinkable. Robert E. Lee attended West Point and served in the United States army.

Yet, on “18 April, he [Lee] was offered by presidential advisor Francis P. Blair, a role as major general to command the defense of Washington.  He replied:

Mr. Blair, I look upon secession as anarchy. If I owned the four millions of slaves in the South I would sacrifice them all to the Union; but how can I draw my sword upon Virginia, my native state? 

(See Robert E. Lee, Wikipedia.)

The Civil War (1861-1865) opposed the Union, the North, and the Confederates, or the South. When Abraham Lincoln was elected to the Presidency of the United States, in November 1860, slave states, the South, stood to lose “their way of life, based on slavery.”

Times had changed.

http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war

First, the slave trade was abolished in 1807 by an act of the British Parliament (see The Slave Trade Act of 1807, Wikipedia). Second, in 1833, slavery itself was abolished (see The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, Wikipedia). What had been considered morally acceptable when the slave trade began in the 16th century had become unacceptable. For centuries, captured Africans were packed like sardines in slave ships, the penultimate of which was the Wanderer. It sailed to Jekyll Island, Georgia delivering some 400 slaves.

USS_Wanderer_(1857) (1)

Wanderer in U.S. Navy service during the American Civil War (1861–1865), after her days in the slave trade were over. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Besides, the economy of the South was an agricultural economy. The South was rich, but unlike the Union, its economy demanded the cheap labour that had long been provided by slaves. As for the North, the Union, its economy was developing into an industrial economy. Furthermore, the 1840 a World Anti-Slavery Convention was held in Exeter Hall, a Masonic Hall. Exeter Hall is a synonym for the Anti-Slavery Society. Freemasons played a significant role in the abolition of slavery.  (See World Anti-Slavery Convention, Wikipedia.) To sum up, the South was doomed, but didn’t act.

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The 1840 Anti-Slavery Convention, by Benjamin Robert Haydon, 1841, London, England (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yet, to some extent, the South was a victim of history. Slavery had not been looked upon as a wrong when the Atlantic Slave Trade began, in the 16th century. Slaves were brought to the Americas, packed like sardines aboard slave ships. They were then purchased by plantation owners who probably believed the blacks were not human beings, at least not altogether. The impact of the Age of Enlightenment on the morally acceptable was enormous and it put slavery where it belonged, in the wrong. However, vested interests and an ingrained state of mind, not altogether American, stood in the way of abolition. Abraham Lincoln himself feared for the South’s economy.

For instance, Lincoln asked Giuseppe Garibaldi to lead an army, but Lincoln knew about an agricultural crisis.

“Garibaldi was ready to accept Lincoln’s 1862 offer but on one condition, said Mr Petacco: that the war’s objective be declared as the abolition of slavery. But at that stage Lincoln was unwilling to make such a statement lest he worsen an agricultural crisis.” (The Guardian, UK)

http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/american-civil-war-history

https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/facts.htm

It remains that a right, slavery, had become a wrong and that it could not be made a right again. It violated the United States’ very own Declaration of Independence, whose main author was Thomas Jefferson, a slave owner:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

But a black could not be transformed into a white. Once they were freed, former slaves were targeted by white supremacists. They became the victims of such groups as the Ku Klux Klan. After the Union won the war, Robert E. Lee himself could not see the blacks as equals. He thought the blacks should not be given the right to vote, which remained the case until the 1960s.

Slavery and Racism: the colour black

At this point, the necessity arises to distinguish between slavery and racism. One can assume that slavery is as old as the world and that slaves have not always been members of the black race. Arabs have enslaved white women. However, the blacks have long been held in contempt. In two former posts, I noted that Senator John C. Calhoun (18 March 1782 – 31 March 1850) did not favour the annexation of Texas by the “Union” because some Mexicans were métis (see Manifest Destiny, Wikipedia).

“We have never dreamt [sic] of incorporating into our Union any but the Caucasian race—the free white race.”

North-African philosopher Ibn Khaldūn (27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406) did not consider the black race as equal to the white race. He saw them as “dumb animals” and, therefore, candidates for slavery.

“Therefore, the Negro nations are, as a rule, submissive to slavery, because (Negroes) have little that is (essentially) human and possess attributes that are quite similar to those of dumb animals, as we have stated.” (See Racism, Wikipedia.)

Historically, the blacks have been considered the inferior race, “dumb animals,” and “submissive to slavery.” Had the whites and the blacks been put on an equal footing, there would not have been an Atlantic Slave Trade and plantation owners would not have grown very wealthy by making slaves do the work. French Count Arthur de Gobineau (14 July 1816 – 13 October 1882), a friend of Alexis de Tocqueville, also considered the black race as inferior to the white race. Gobineau is the author of An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races, published in 1853. (See Related Articles #2)

The Abolition of Slavery

The Union won the war and slavery was abolished. By 1865, United States President Abraham Lincoln had already emancipated 3 million slaves. On the 1st of January 1863 Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order. On the 1st of January 1863. (See Emancipation Proclamation, Wikipedia.) However, slavery was not ended officially until the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed by the Senate, on 8 April 1864, and by the House of Representatives, on 31 January 1865. A total of four million slaves were freed and Abraham Lincoln paid the ultimate price. He was assassinated on 15 April 1865, six days after Robert E. Lee “surrendered his entire army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.” (See Robert E. Lee, Wikipedia)

But it had been a very bloody war:

Four years of intense combat left 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers dead, a higher number than the number of American military deaths in all other wars combined.

 

General_Robert_E._Lee_surrenders_at_Appomattox_Court_House_1865

A print showing Union Army General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant accepting Confederate General-in-Chief Robert E. Lee‘s surrender on April 9th, 1865. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Civil War left profound traces. It ended slavery, but racism grew and it intensified the discussion about the nature of the American federalism. After the Civil War, “power shifted away from the states and towards the national government.” (See Federalism in the United States, Wikipedia.) Several Americans fear their government.

Labour unions remembered Lincoln, which is also significant.

1912_Lawrence_Textile_Strike_2

Flyer distributed in Lawrence, Massachusetts, September 1912. The Lawrence textile strike was a strike of immigrant workers.

The Permit

http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/13/us/charlottesville-heather-heyer-profile/index.html

President Trump was criticized for stating that there was violence on “both sides:” a hate group, who protested “legally,” and counter protesters. There was indeed a mêlée, but a permit to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee (19 January 1807 – 12 October 1870) cannot justify the killing of Heather D. Heyer. Besides, there is violence and there is violence.

In other words, a hate crime was perpetrated in Charlottesville. Although the neo-Nazi group had a permit, twenty-year-old James Alex Fields drove a motor vehicle into a group of counter protesters killing 32-year-old Heather D. Heyer, a paralegal from Charlottesville, and wounding 19 other counter protesters. James Alex Fields killed, which is a crime.

May you rest in peace, Heather Heyer.

Conclusion

No permit can justify murder. The President of the United States therefore blundered by suggesting that a permit lessened James Alex Fields’ guilt. Words such as “permit” and “legally” were uttered by white nationalists to excuse their crime. One wonders whether a hate group should be provided with a permit to protest. In Charlottesville, a permit could and did invite disorder including murder. Freedom is not a free-for-all. Freedom and a free-for-all are poles apart.

It may be judicious for the American Civil Liberties Union (A.C.L.U.) to reëxamine its position regarding the Charlottesville events. Everything has its limits including liberty. Liberty cannot be put into the service of criminal conduct. The Charlottesville events border on Thomas Hobbes‘ view of man “in a state of nature:”

“in a state of nature each person would have a right, or license, to everything in the world. This, Hobbes argues, would lead to a ‘war of all against all’ (bellum omnium contra omnes).” (See Related Articles #9)

As for the Las Vegas shooting, there is a sense in which Stephen Paddock also acted “legally.” In the United States, civilians are permitted to carry firearms. What could Stephen Paddock do with his collection of firearms? I suspect that when a President such as Donald J. Trump is in office, a person who has a collection of firearms may shoot and kill. It would be in the best interest of a Presidential hopeful to refuse an endorsement from the National Rifle Association and the Ku Klux Klan a fortiori. Deaths by gun are far too numerous and too many victims are blacks. The right to bear arms makes it difficult for a police officer to know whether he or she is addressing a person bearing arms. Not that police brutality is acceptable, but that in the United States police officers are caught between a rock and a hard place. It’s “a war of all against all.”

RELATED ARTICLES

  1. Walter Crane: from Slavery to Wage-Slavery (21 December 2015)
  2. Comments on Racism (2 February 2015)
  3. Freemasonry & Abolitionism  (31 January 2014)
  4. Ignatius Sancho & Laurence Sterne: a Letter (14 December 2013)
  5. The Abolition of Slavery (15 November 2013)
  6. From Manifest Destiny to Exceptionalism (10 November 2013)
  7. “Sorry Chancellor Merkel” (30 October 2013)
  8. The Noble Savage: Lahontan’s Adario (21 October 2012)
  9. The Social Contract: Hobbes, Locke & Rousseau (13 October 2012)←
 

Love to everyone ♥

 
Amazing Grace
 
14xp-heather-master315

Heather D. Heyer (Photo credit: CNN)

Micheline Walker
8 October 2017
WordPress

 

Turning the other cheek

06 Sunday Dec 2015

Posted by in Slavery, Terrorism, The Middle East

≈ 6 Comments

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head-of-st-james-the-less

Head of St James the Less by Leonardo da Vinci (Photo credit: WikiArt.org)

Retaliation

Once again, we are witnesses to retaliation.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/03/world/russia-turkey-syria-warplane-tensions/index.html

Turkey has shot down a Russian fighter jet so Russian President Vladimir Putin, not a choirboy, is therefore saying that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will regret “for a long time” downing the Russian fighter plane. It was flying in Turkey’s airspace.

Having a “right” to…

Erdoğan will not apologize. He had a “right” to shoot down this Russian fighter jet because it was flying in Turkey’s airspace.

According to this logic, if a child, a brother, (1) has hurt his sister (2) the day before, the sister (2) has the right to hurt her brother (1) the following day. I believe that if a responsible parent sees his or her children fighting, the sister (2) will not be allowed to hurt her brother (1) and that both will be told they are acting irresponsibly. If the sister (2) has hurt her brother, both might be sent to their respective rooms to “think.”

No one has the “right” to hurt another person willfully. As for revenge, it is immature behaviour. One apologizes and, if losses were incurred, reasonable compensation may be necessary.

But it could be that I am reading a different page, or a different book.

With respect to pilots, prudence was advisable. It is safer for pilots not to enter another country’s airspace if doing so is a violation or if there is enmity between their nation and the one whose airspace they have foolishly penetrated. There were two pilots. One man died, but the other was rescued. However, none of this was appropriate.

Leonardo_da_Vinci_helicopter_and_lifting_wing

Flying Machines Leonardo

How can anyone expect Isis to end the atrocities perpetrated against the people of Paris and against inhabitants of the Middle East, if Russian President Vladimir Putin allows Russian pilots to fly in Turkey’s airspace and President Erdoğan orders the Turkish military to shoot the plane down?

Therefore, the leaders themselves are showing Isis that it is acceptable to retaliate every time a drone attack occurs. In other words, They are showing Isis that if Syria is bombed, it should dig in its heels by attacking countries outside Syria, not to mention Syrians themselves who may fall into the hands of terrorists.

More heads will fall, more people will be burned alive or locked into cages that will be lowered into water. Isis will also capture women and turn them into sex slaves, not to mention other ignominies.

Worst of all, Syrians will continue to pour out of their country.

study-of-a-figure-for-the-battle-of-anghiari.jpg!Blog

Study of a figure from the Battle of Anghieri, Leonardo (Photo credit: WikiArt.org)

The West has long meddled in the affairs of the Middle East. What comes to mind immediately are George W Bush’s wars, the 2000s. But, let us not forget the Crusades nor colonialism.

In fact, let us not forget that harm done to Islam by the West cannot justify Isis’ barbaric behaviour?  It’s retaliation gone astray and untargeted. Yet, can strikes be targeted and just who should strike?

Jesus of Nazareth, a Jew who lived in occupied Palestine, did not leave a manuscript. However, he is reported to have said: “Turn the other cheek.” It was a metaphor and cannot be read or interpreted literally. Yet, in the context of current events, it makes sense. Or could it be that I am once again reading a different page and, perhaps, the wrong book?

My kindest regards to everyone. ♥

800px-Bloch-SermonOnTheMount

The Sermon on the Mount by Carl Bloch (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Johann Sebastian Bach

Nathalie Stutzmann, contralto
La Pasión según San Mateo BWV 244, “Erbame dich”
Orfeo 55

head-of-st-james-the-less

Head of St James the Less by Leonardo da Vinci (Photo credit: WikiArt.org)

© Micheline Walker
6 December 2015
WordPress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isis: a Nightmare

03 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by in Religion, Russia, Slavery, Terrorism

≈ 2 Comments

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an-arab-and-his-dog

An Arab and his Dogs by Jean-Léon Gérôme (Photo credit: WikiArt.org)

My lost post resurfaced. I added missing links to the published post, but did not change its contents. However, one of my links led to more information. It seems Isis is offending Russia. It appears a Russian has been beheaded.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/02/middleeast/isis-russian-beheading-claim/?iid=ob_lockedrail_topeditorial&iref=obinsite

It also appears Isis is targeting a religious group.

Assad was interviewed and claims not to have failed his people, but further radicalization of Islam is taking place.

The following images are very perturbing

purchase-of-a-slave.jpg!Blog

Purchase of a Slave by Jean-Léon Gérôme  (Photo credit: WikiArt.org)

3571317234

Slave Market by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1866

http://www.haaretz.com/misc/iphone-article/.premium-1.609449

 

Une_nouvelle_arrivée_by_Giulio_Rosati_3

The Newly-arrived Slave at the Harem by Giulio Rosati (Photo credit: FR Wikipedia)

Wikipedia has an entry entitled Traite des Blanches (trading white women).

The trading of white women is something French and French Canadian women have known about. But I have never heard anyone speak about the capture and enslavement of white women outside Quebec or France.

9/11

It is quite true that the wars of the 2000s triggered many of the acts of terrorism we are witnessing. But the attacks of 9/11 were acts of terrorism perpetrated against the United States. It was retaliation. So there is more to that story.

King regards to everyone. ♥

Jean-Léon_Gérôme_-_On_the_Desert_-_Walters_3734

On the Desert by Jean-Léon Gérôme (Photo credit: The Walters Art Museum)

© Micheline Walker
3 November 2015
WordPress

Ignatius Sancho & Laurence Sterne: a Letter

14 Saturday Dec 2013

Posted by in Black history, Slavery

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Ignarius Sancho
Ignatius Sancho (Google images)
Slave hanging from his ribs, by William Blake (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Slave hanging from his ribs, by William Blake (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ignatius Sancho (c. 1729 – 14 December 1780), a Black slave, lived in Britain at the height of the debate on antislavery and he left a testimonial, letters mainly, of the struggle to end an ignominy. Sancho was a man of colour, but antislavery motivated many members of the White race to gather and attempt to eradicate the subjugation of coloured human beings. Colour is skin-deep. Many abolitionists were Quakers, which is the case with French-American Anthony Benezet (Antoine Bénézet) and his followers. But the person who helped Sancho, John Montagu, the 2nd Duke of Montagu KG, KB, PC (1690 – 5 July 1749), was a Freemason.

Inequality

Because it deals with inequality, Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality (1754) could be a key document on the topic of abolitionism, except that Rousseau is one of the thinkers who introduced the idea of the Noble Savage.[i] Therefore, having mentioned the Discourse on Inequality, we are crossing the English Channel from France to England, where the antislavery debate was at a climax and would attract American abolitionists, one of whom was the above-mentioned French-born American Anthony Benezet (31 January 1713 – 3 May 1784). (See The Abolition of Slavery.)

Ignatius Sancho, by Thomas Gainsborough, National Gallery of Canada

Ignatius Sancho, by Thomas Gainsborough, National Gallery of Canada (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Thomas Gainsborough, FRSA (christened 14 May 1727 – 2 August 1788)

Ignatius Sancho and Laurence Sterne

Ignatius Sancho (c. 1729 – 14 December 1780) was a Black slave who wrote a letter to Laurence Sterne (24 November 1713 – 18 March 1768) which, upon publication and concurrent publication of the Reverend Sterne’s answer to Sancho’s letter, made Ignatius Sancho famous. Laurence Sterne, an Anglo-Irish novelist and Anglican clergyman, is best known as the author of Tristram Shandy, or A Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1761-1767) and A Sentimental Journey to France and Italy (1668).[ii]

Because the publication of Tristram Shandy had been a huge success, our Black British abolitionist Ignatius Sancho wrote to Sterne urging the writer to put his eloquence into the service of abolitionism:

That subject, handled in your striking manner, would ease the yoke (perhaps) of many – but if only one – Gracious God! – what a feast to a benevolent heart!

Laurence Sterne received Sancho’s letter in July 1766, two years before his death. There was little the Reverend Sterne could do at this point in his life. In 1765, Sterne had travelled, in vain, to France and Italy, in search of a climate that would relieve the symptoms of tuberculosis. He died in 1768, two years after receiving and answering Sancho’s letter, but his response to Sancho has survived the test of time and constitutes a witty and powerful statement against slavery. It ridiculed slavery.

“There is a strange coincidence, Sancho, in the little events (as well as in the great ones) of this world: for I had been writing a tender tale of the sorrows of a friendless poor negro-girl, and my eyes had scarce done smarting with it, when your letter of recommendation in behalf of so many of her brethren and sisters, came to me—but why her brethren?—or your’s, Sancho! any more than mine? It is by the finest tints, and most insensible gradations, that nature descends from the fairest face about St. James’s, to the sootiest complexion in Africa: at which tint of these, is it, that the ties of blood are to cease? and how many shades must we descend lower still in the scale, ’ere mercy is to vanish with them?—but ’tis no uncommon thing, my good Sancho, for one half of the world to use the other half of it like brutes, & then endeavor to make ’em so.”

Laurence Sterne, by Louis de Carmontelle, c. 1762 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Laurence Sterne, by Louis de Carmontelle, 1762 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Louis de Carmontelle (15 August 1717 – 26 December 1806)

Ignatius Sancho

Birth on a slave ship

Black British abolitionist Ignatius Sancho (c. 1729 – 14 December 1780) was born on the slave ship taking his parents to New Granada, a Spanish colony. Sancho’s mother died when Sancho was in infancy. After Sancho’s mother’s death, his father committed suicide rather than live as a slave. Slaves belonged to their owners. Some owners were good, but too many were brutes. The owner of the slave hanging from his ribs, portrayed by William Blake (above), was a brute and nothing could stop him. He owned the man he was killing mercilessly. Owning a human being can lead to horrific abuse.

The 1730s and 40s

At the age of two, Sancho was sent to England where he worked for three maiden sisters in Greenwich until the 1750s. However, John Montagu, the 2nd Duke of Montagu KG, KB, PC (1690 – 5 July 1749), a Freemason, took an interest in Ignatius, who was a very intelligent child whose personality and manners were truly endearing. John Montagu therefore funded what little formal education Sancho received. The Montagus always helped Sancho.

The 50s and 60s

During the 50s, Sancho spent two happy years working as butler to Mary Montagu (née Churchill). During those two years, he studied music. He would later publish a theory of music and compose. In the 60s, he married a West Indian woman, Ann Osborne. The couple had six children. During that same period he also became a valet to George Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu, the son-in-law of his former patron and a man of refinement. When he started to work for George Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu, Thomas Gainsborough made a portrait of Sancho.

The Late 1760s and the 70s

In 1774, with help from the Duke of Montagu and using the remains of an inheritance and the annuity he was receiving from Mary Montagu, Sancho, then suffering from ill-health and gout, opened a green grocery shop offering merchandise such as tobacco, sugar and tea, at 19 Charles Street in London’s Mayfair, Westminster.

It is during this period of his life that Sancho published his Theory of Music and songs. It is also during this period that he became a voter. “As a financially independent male householder living in Westminster, Sancho qualified to vote in the parliamentary elections of 1774 and 1780.” (See Ignatius Sancho, Wikipedia.) During the 1700s, Sancho also contributed letters in newspapers, under his own name and under the pseudonym “Africanus.”

images

Ignatius Sancho: A Summary

Ignatius Sancho (c. 1729 – 14 December 1780) was

  • a Black slave born on a slave ship;
  • a composer: he published a Theory of Music and composed songs;
  • a playwright: he wrote two plays and was an acquaintance of famed actor David Garrick;
  • an actor;
  • a writer, letters (to Sterne, and to newspapers), plays and a two-volume collection of letters published after his death;
  • a businessman;
  • the first black person of African origin known to have voted in Britain;
  • the first African to be given an obituary in the British press (see above).

Conclusion

According to Wikipedia, Sancho “was unusually blunt in [h]is response to a letter from Jack Wingrave, John Wingrave’s son. Jack wrote about his “negative reaction to people of colour based on his own experience in India during the 1770s.” (See Ignatius Sancho, Wikipedia.) John Wingrave, Jack’s father and Sancho’s friend, was a London bookbinder and bookseller.

“I am sorry to observe that the practice of your country (which as a resident I love – and for its freedom – and for the many blessings I enjoy in it – shall ever have my warmest wishes, prayers and blessings); I say it is with reluctance, that I must observe your country’s conduct has been uniformly wicked in the East – West-Indies – and even on the coast of Guinea. The grand object of English navigators – indeed of all Christian navigators – is money – money – money – for which I do not pretend to blame them – Commerce was meant by the goodness of the Deity to diffuse the various goods of the earth into every part—to unite mankind in the blessed chains of brotherly love – society – and mutual dependence: the enlightened Christian should diffuse the riches of the Gospel of peace – with the commodities of his respective land – Commerce attended with strict honesty – and with Religion for its companion – would be a blessing to every shore it touched at. In Africa, the poor wretched natives blessed with the most fertile and luxuriant soil- are rendered so much the more miserable for what Providence meant as a blessing: the Christians’ abominable traffic for slaves and the horrid cruelty and treachery of the petty Kings encouraged by their Christian customers who carry them strong liquors to enflame their national madness – and powder – and bad fire-arms – to furnish them with the hellish means of killing and kidnapping.” (See Sancho’s View on Empire and Slavery.)

The above letter may be “blunt,” but could it be otherwise? Ignatius Sancho was fighting an evil, perhaps the very worst evil human beings have inflicted on themselves, an evil motivated by greed.

RELATED ARTICLES

Sources

[i] “noble savage”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2013.
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/416988/noble-savage>.

[ii] “Laurence Sterne.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2013.
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/565796/Laurence-Sterne>.
  

Ignatius Sancho 

images

UK Stamp
UK Stamp
© Micheline Walker
14 December 2013
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Ignatius Sancho died today, 14 December, in 1780.
 

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin

29 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by in Abolitionists, American Literature, Art, Slavery

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 001 
 
Uncle Tom and Little Eva, by Edwin Longsden Long R. A. (12 July 1829 – 15 May 1891), a children’s edition
(Photo credit: Project Gutenberg [EBook #11171])
 
Edwin Longsden Long R. A. (12 July 1829 – 15 May 1891)
 

Two Classics: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Joel Chandler Harris’ Uncle Remus

Both Harriet Beecher Stowe and Joel Chandler Harris were criticized for creating or perpetuating stereotypes concerning the Black in America. Yet, Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, made the evils of slavery known to millions of readers. As for Joel Chandler Harris‘ Uncle Remus stories, they were trickster stories that fascinate folklorists in that they were told by Uncle Remus but do not originate in African tales. Africans brought Anansi to the United States. These stories are spider tales and may be  ancestors to Spider-man.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s (14 June 1811 – 1 July 1896) is the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly. When President Abraham Lincoln (12 February 1809 – 15 April 1865) met Mrs Stowe, he exclaimed: “so you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” (See Harriet Beecher Stowe, Wikipedia.) This was an exaggeration, but not by much.[i] According to the Oxford Companion to American Literature (sixth edition, 1995), Harriet Beecher Stowe was not an abolitionist, but it would be my opinion that Mrs Stowe played too significant a role in the abolition of slavery not to have been or become an abolitionist at heart.

In 1832, Harriet Beecher, Lyman Beecher‘s daughter, left Litchfield, Connecticut, where she was born and raised. She followed her family to Cincinnati Ohio and started to work as a teacher. While living in Cincinnati, Harriet Beecher took refuge in Washington, Kentucky because Cincinnati was afflicted with a serious cholera epidemic. There were slaves in Kentucky, chattel slaves mainly. During that visit to Kentucky, Harriet Beecher was taken to see a slave auction. This was her first exposure to slavery.  However, in 1836, she married Calvin Eliss Stowe (6 April 1802 – 22 August 1886), an American Biblical scholar who taught at Harriet’s father’s theological seminary, Lane, and was an ardent and active opponent of slavery. Mrs Stowe died in Hartford, Connecticut, her home for 23 years.

The Treatment of Slaves: the facts

“The treatment of slaves in the United States varied widely depending on conditions, times and places. Treatment was generally characterized by brutality, degradation, and inhumanity. Whippings, executions, and rapes were commonplace. According to Adalberto Aguirre,[ii] there were 1,161 slaves executed in the U.S. between the 1790s and 1850s. Exceptions existed to virtually every generalization; for instance, there were slaves who employed white workers, slave doctors who treated upper-class white patients, and slaves who rented out their labor. After 1820 [in the US, the slave trade was abolished in 1807], in response to the inability to import new slaves from Africa, some slaveholders improved the living conditions of their slaves, to influence them not to attempt escape.” (See Slavery, Wikipedia.)

Harriet Beecher Stowe & William Still

The Underground Railroad

Calvin Eliss Stowe, Harriet’s husband, was associated with The Underground Railroad, a movement founded by William Still (7 October 1821 – 14 July 1902), “The Father of the Underground Railroad” and a writer. Still’s Underground Railroad is a Project Gutenberg publication [EBook #15263].[iii] Members of this movement provided safe houses and protected slaves fleeing north from slave-hunters, a form of witch-hunting.[iv] For instance, individuals dressed as policemen, were catching slaves travelling to Canada. Members of the Underground Railroad asked Bostonians to protect the beleaguered Black population. (See the image at the foot of this post, c 1851.)

Initially, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), the best-selling novel of the 19th century, was serialized in the National Era (1851-1852), serialization was common practice in the 19th century, but it appeared in book form in 1852, selling 300,000 copies. Stowe was famous. Mrs Stowe was influenced by a Slave Narrative: The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself (1849) a work by Josiah Henson (15 June 1789 – 5 May 1883). Uncle Tom’s Cabin was an eloquent response to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.

722px-Brooklyn_Museum_-_A_Ride_for_Liberty_--_The_Fugitive_Slaves_-_Eastman_Johnson_-_overall
 767px-Eastman_Johnson_-_Negro_Life_at_the_South_-_ejb_-_fig_67_-_pg_120

 Eastman Johnson (29 July 1824 – 5 April 1906)

A Ride for Liberty 
Negro Life at the South

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Uncle Tom’s Cabin: an Instrument of Change

As for Stowe, the novelist, after reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin, many among her world-wide  “audience,” became abolitionists or were endeared to the cause of abolition. Literature and the arts in general, not to mention a good education, are powerful instruments of change. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was an instrument of abolition. It was a “story” with characters one could relate to and start loving. It spoke to the heart and was both a moment of grace and an instance of defiance.

Knowingly or unknowlingly, Harriet Beecher Stowe did join her husband who, as a member of The Underground Railroad, also defied the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, a continuation of the Fugitive Act of 1793. There was a price to pay. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s father, a staunch conservative, came under attack because of his daughter’s book. However, there was praise. Stowe was received by President Abraham Lincoln (25 November 1862), three years before the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and one year before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation (1st January, 1863). She was also received by Queen Victoria. Besides, whatever her perception of herself, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) opposed, in no uncertain terms, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin summarized

It’s a simple story. Uncle Tom is a slave who “belongs” to the Shelby family, who are ‘good’ slave owners.  Due to financial difficulties, the Shelbys are about to sell their slaves. Uncle Tom helps the mulatto girl Eliza and her child cross the frozen Ohio River. But he stays behind out of loyalty to his owners. He is sold to a slave trader and separated from his family. But young George Shelby vows to redeem him.

Going down the Mississippi, Tom saves young Eva’s life and her family, the St Clares, are  most grateful to Tom. They buy him and he becomes their servant in New Orleans. For two years, Tom is happy with Eva and her rather naughty Black friend Topsy.

However, happiness is short-lived. Eva is frail and dies. Then her father is killed accidentally. So Uncle Tom is auctioned off to the Legree family, ‘bad’ slave owners. Simon Legree is a brutal man who drinks to excess. However, he has found in Uncle Tom a forgiving slave and becomes more lenient, which makes him fear his slaves. Two of them make believe they have run away. Uncle Tom will not reveal Cassie’s and Emmaline’s whereabouts. In a fit of rage, Simon Legree has Uncle Tom flogged to death. 

Uncle Tom still has a friend in George Shelby, but George arrives as Tom is dying. Unable to save Uncle Tom, George swears to devote his life to the abolition of slavery. He is true to the promise he made to redeem Uncle Tom.

Eva and Topsy

Eva and Topsy[v]

Topsy (left) and Little Eva, characters from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1851–52); lithograph by Louisa Corbaux, 1852. Louisa Corbaux/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USZC4-2974)
(Photo credit: The Encyclopædia Britannica)
This picture is available on the internet.  Please refrain from associating it to my blog.
 

A Successful Plot

There may be ‘bad’ slave owners, but there are ‘good’ ones. The readers need only identify with the Shelbys and, particularly, with George who keeps his promise to redeem Uncle Tom. The readers may also identify with little Eva whose friend Topsy is a Black child. Although Eva is the daughter of a slave trader, she loves uncle Tom and plays with Topsy. There is, therefore, inherent goodness in Uncle Tom. He is a human being, endowed with moral superiority. He is loyal to the Shelbys and he tries to help Simon Legree. Moreover, although George Shelby arrives too late, George Shelby, who is good, knows that Tom is a fine man.  Had Uncle Tom not been dying, he would have been redeemed by his former owners. But the timing is wrong and one cannot fault timing. Bad timing is an accident and creates suspense, a favourite device in fiction. Uncle Tom dies, but it is one person’s fault, Legree, not a community nor the readers, except that slavery has made this horrifying death possible.

So there is an indictment of slavery in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; an unambiguous indictment. In this respect, Mrs Stowe does not waver. Uncle Tom is consistently at the mercy of “owners.” If a slave is purchased by a ‘bad’ slave owner, his or her fate can be an unjust and painful death. However, we can count on George to be victorious. He is a saviour figure. Mrs Stowe’s account of the plight of slaves is therefore nuancé. In fact, fate is portrayed as unkind, whatever the colour of one’s skin. The Shelbys are impoverished and little Eva’s health is so fragile that she dies.

In other words, Uncle Tom’s story is very sad and there is one very ‘bad’ man whose skin is white.[vi] So, despite gradations and many happy moments, Uncle Tom’s Cabin is about the wrongs of slavery. Uncle Tom is sold and he is killed as though his life meant nothing, which was precisely the case. In the days of slavery, the life of a slave meant nothing, which was and remains an infamy.

I will therefore close by repeating Abraham Lincoln’s words: “so you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” (See Harriet Beecher Stowe, Wikipedia.)

Sources:
Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a Gutenberg Project publication [EBook #11171]
The Underground Railroad is a Gutenberg Project publication [EBook #15263]
Wikipedia (as indicated, a quotation at a time)
The Oxford Companion to American Literature (1995)
The Encyclopædia Britannica.[iv]
                                                
______________________________
[i] A. Aguirre, Jr., “Slave executions in the United States,” The Social Science Journal, vol. 36, issue 1 (1999), pp. 1–31. (Quoted in Slavery in  the United States, Wikipedia.)
[ii] Anti-Slavery Society: http://anti-slaverysociety.addr.com/hus-utc.htm
[iii] The Underground Railroad is a Project Gutenberg publication [EBook #15263] 
[iv] A large number of fugitive slaves were transported to Liberia.
[v] “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 29 Nov. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/614067/Uncle-Toms-Cabin>. 
[vi] There were exceptions, but nearly all slave owners in America had white skin.
 

[

Kidnap Poster, c 1851

Kidnap Poster,   1851

© Micheline Walker
29 November 2013
WordPress

The Abolition of Slavery

15 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by in Black history, Slavery

≈ 18 Comments

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The 1840 Anti-Slavery Convention, London, England
The 1840 Anti-Slavery Convention, by Benjamin Robert Haydon, 1841, London, England (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Abolitionism

Exeter Hall
 
Exeter Hall (1840 Anti-Slavery Convention)
(Caption and photo credit: Wikipedia) 

“Thomas Clarkson[i] (28 March 1760 – 26 September 1846), was an English abolitionist. He helped found the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, formed on 22 May 1787, and helped achieve passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which ended British trade in slaves. In 1840, he was the key speaker at the Anti-Slavery Society (today known as Anti-Slavery International) conference in London, which campaigned to end slavery in other countries.”

The Abolition of Slave Trade (Britain 1807)

 
Thomas Clarkson (Britain)
William Wilberforce (Britain)
Anthony Benezet (US)
British Abolitionists (list)
 

The Slave Trade Act of 1807 did not abolish slavery, but it paved the way for the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire, the Empire on which the sun never se[t]. It helped foster awareness of the ignominy of owning another human being, which was soon recognized. Previously, slavery had seemed a “right” and, in the case of the Americas, several members of Africa’s Black population participated in the very lucrative slave trade. (See Slavery and Atlantic Slave Trade, Wikipedia.)

The Slave Trade Act of 1807 (Britain)

THOMAS CLARKSON AND WILLIAM WILBERFORCE

Other than Thomas Clarkson (28 March 1760 – 26 September 1846), prominent abolitionists included Britain’s William Wilberforce (24 August 1759 – 29 July 1833), Granville Sharp (10 November 1735 – 6 July 1813), African Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780). As indicated in Wikipedia, Wilberforce “headed the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade for twenty-six years until the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807.” (See William Wilberforce, Wikipedia.)

The Abolition of Slave Trade of (America 1807)

Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage
Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807 (2nd March), (America)

ANTHONY BENEZET (AMERICA)

Among American abolitionists was French-born American educator Anthony Benezet, or Antoine Bénézet (31 January 1713 – 3 May 1784). Bénézet’s Calvinist Protestant[ii] family had been persecuted as a result of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

However, when he moved to America and settled in Philadelphia, Benezet joined the Religious Society of Friends.[iii] In other words, he became a Quaker. Benezet is the founder the first anti-slavery society of the world’s history, the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage and his legacy. Seventeen of the 24 members of the Society were Quakers. Slave trade was abolished in America shortly thereafter, on March 2, 1807. (See the Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves of 1807.)

The Abolition of Slavery

Britain (1833)
France (1848)
America (1865)

The culmination of the work of British abolitionists, Thomas Clarkson, a Quaker, and others, eventually led to the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, in Britain. Certain areas of the British Empire did not free their slaves in 1833, but the motivation to free slaves, a motivation rooted in the Age of Enlightenment, the 18th century, was growing into a moral imperative.

The French Revolution did away with slavery, but it resurfaced and was not eradicated in France until 1848.

The American Civil War and the Abolition of Slavery

the Civil War: 12 April 1861 – 10 May 1865
the Confederacy: eleven Slave States 
the Union: 20 Free States
Onset: The Battle of Fort Sumter, 12-14 April 1861 (a Confederate victory)
End: Union victory
Emancipation Proclamation: 1st January 1863 (eleven Slave States)
Thirteenth Amendment: 18 December 1865 (the United States)
 

However, in America, slavery was not abolished until 1865, under the terms of the Thirteenth Amendment to the US constitution, effective beginning on 18 December 1865. In 1863, when seven states seceded and four more would later join these Slave States. In 1861, they constituted the self-proclaimed Confederacy. Secession from the Union was illegal.

The Civil War began in 1861 when the Confederate States attacked Fort Sumter (12-14 April 1861). It was a Confederate victory. Consequently, four more states joined the Confederacy, now comprising a total of 11 Slave States.

On 1st January 1863, President Abraham Lincoln (12 February 1809 – 15 April 1865; by gun) issued an Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in the 11 Slave States. It was an Executive Order, a direct order from the President of the United States.

Conclusion

To a large extent, those who opposed the abolition of slavery stood to lose free labor and, in many cases, faced poverty and destitution. It could well be that in the United States opposition to taxation is rooted in a form “exceptionalism” or, perhaps, in a form of reversed entitlement. Many extremist Republicans live in former Slave States and many are as wealthy as their ancestors were in the days of slavery. However, given the loss of nearly free labor, they perhaps wonder why they should pay taxes, thereby contributing to the implementation of social programs that protect everyone, but which they, personally, do not need. They are rich and they can therefore look after themselves. In fact, it is possible for such individuals to view taxes as a form of enslavement.

However, it is also entirely possible for people who benefit from social programs to feel they are entitled to the services provided by the government. That is the prevailing definition of entitlement. They may therefore oppose cuts. In fact, the Quebec students who opposed a slight raise in tuition fee ended up asking the Quebec government to provide them with a free education. In their opinion, they were entitled to a free education. Therefore, when their tuition fees were raised by a very small amount, many felt they had been betrayed by the system.

_________________________ 
[i] Clarkson’s An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly the African, Translated from a Latin Dissertation which was honoured with the First Prize in the University of Cambridge, in the year 1785, with Additions, is a Gutenberg Project [EBook #10611] 
[ii] French Calvinist Protestants were called Huguenots.
[iii] Many abolitionists were Quakers.
 
Lincoln: Film Trailer 
Abraham_Lincoln_November_1863© Micheline Walker
15 November 2013
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Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)