Lesson video

Hello and welcome to lesson two of four in the history enquiry.

How successful were efforts to abolish the slave trade in the 19th century? I am Mr. Madeley and today's lesson is the Abolition Movement.

For today's lesson, you're going to need a pen or pencil, some paper and a nice quiet room in order to work in.

If you need to find that room or any of the equipment, then please pause the video now and make sure you collect them.

Brilliant.

Make sure you've got the title down, but if you haven't, pause the video now to make sure that you can.

Fantastic.

So, what do these pictures have to do with today's lesson? So remember, we're looking at the abolition movement in today's lesson.

So, on the one side, we have all a Olaudah Equiano, a former enslaved West African.

And on the other, you have a image of a British slave trading vessel, and you can see how crammed they were with enslaved people.

So what do you think they have to do with today's lesson? So if you want to, pause the video and have a think.

Well done.

These are two of the really important people slash evidence that was used to help persuade people to support the abolition, the ending of the slave trade.

So Equiano is going to be really, really important.

And we're going to look at Equiano's story later in this lesson and how influential and important he was in persuading the British public to support the abolition of the slave trade.

Now, to help support what Equiano was saying, you've got the evidence collected by the anti-slavery societies, such as the image you've got to the right of the horrors of the slave trade.

So, let's look at the rest of the lesson now.

So, quick overview of last lesson and Britain during the 19th century.

Then, we're going to look at the reasons behind the abolition movement, slave revolts.

Try to remember what we looked at last lesson, war, religion, anti-slavery societies, and back down to money.

And what was the most important reason behind the abolition movement and why people were willing to support the abolition movement.

So, we're going to do three multiple choice questions, I know you're going to do really well on them.

And then just revisit the important information from the previous lesson.

So here we go.

Which group of former enslaved people fought two wars against Britain? Now I know you know this, if you need to pause the video, if not five, four, three, two, one, I can hear your shout your answer.

It was the Maroons, well done.

Question two.

Which cropped did enslaved people mostly gather on plantations in Jamaica? Wow, now this was a bit of a tricky one because three out of the four are potential answers.

But, which was the main crop on the plantation? So five, four, three, two, one, well done.

It was sugar.

Cotton and tobacco, were also crops that were gathered by mainly enslaved people, especially in the Americas and the Caribbean, but on Jamaica, it was mostly sugar.

So last question.

What was the name of the enslaved peoples' rebellion in Jamaica in 1831? Remember the one that was really, really important.

The one that helped to push through the full abolition of slavery.

So five, four, three, two, one, well done.

It was the Baptist War.

Fantastic, and well done on remembering those key points from the last lesson.

So what was Britain like during the 18th century and 19th century? Well, Britain was undergoing this thing called the industrial revolution.

And the industrial revolution, basically saw steam power replacing people.

So, machines started to be used.

The first factories were built to spin cotton.

So machine powered cotton mill could do the work of hundreds, if not thousands of just ordinary people working by themselves.

So Britain is undergoing all of these changes and it means that actually they're becoming more reliant on machinery and people working with those machines to mass produce items, to produce lots and lots of them then actually the need for people to make things for themselves.

So, an example would be, why would you need somebody in the 1900s, late 1800s, sorry, 1900s, why would you need somebody to walk around a field where they knife or a , a cutting blade to cut tobacco or cotton or sugar or corn or barley, why would you do that when you could buy a modern machine like a harvester, combine harvester, which you can do the job of 20 or 30 men in a smallest amount of time.

So Britain is going through all of these changes.

And so, actually its need to rely on enslaved labour is actually falling because machines are starting to replace the work of people.

So, if you have this idea that you've got an industrialising country, which Britain was, why is it still using enslaved people in the colonies? So in Jamaica, in the Caribbean, why does it need that when it's starting to rely on machines in Britain to do things, why can't they just do that in the colonies as well? So, I'd like you to pause the video and just think of an answer to that question, and if you want to, write it down.

So pause the video, now.

No, I know you've got this.

Well, again, unfortunately it comes down to money.

You don't have to pay enslaved people, whereas you do have to pay for the machinery.

You do have to pay for the people to work that machinery.

So, using enslaved people were still cheaper and trade, you can unfortunately, lay the whole point of enslave trade or the slave trade was that you can buy and sell enslaved people.

So, you've still got that trade, you can still make, again, it goes back to, you can still make money out of it.

However, you have Britain, a country that at this point in time, prided itself on the freedom it offers its people.

This is Britain, if you think back to year seven, Britain of Magna Carta, Britain of Parliament, where ordinary people can have, although they actually can't because only really rich can vote to this point in time.

But the image is that, the people of Britain have a say in how their countries run, that all Englishmen are free, an Englishman's home is his castle, ideas yet, actually that's not true.

So at some point, Britain is going to have to face the truth that if it wants to continue calling itself, the land like the Americans do, the land of the free, the mother of democracy and of liberty and freedoms, then it has to face the truth that that's not correct because it uses enslaved labour.

So today's lesson is looking at how, not everyone in Britain, but how some in Britain started to challenge this view and started to look at why the slave trade and the enslavement of people had to end.

And how they then went about trying to persuade others to support their view.

And that is the abolition movement.

So, slave resistance.

We looked at this little bit last lesson with Jamaica and things like the Baptist War, the Tacky's Revolt but, the really, really important event happened early in the 1800s and it wasn't even, a British colony.

At Saint Domingue, you had enslaved peoples revolt against French rule.

Now in 1794, the French, as part of that revolution and getting rid of that monarchy, they had ended slavery.

They had abolished slavery.

So, remember that 'cause the British claimed that they are or were the first, they weren't because actually the French did it first.

But, these enslaved people rose up and they defeated the French who were on the Island, their former plantation owners.

Well, Saint Domingue was a really important and rich and valuable colony.

So the British decided that they were going to take the Island for themselves, and that would help in their war against France, 'cause they would deny France the money from this Island.

However, the former enslaved people managed to drive off and defeat the British who had attacked them.

So, you had one of the most sophisticated and best armies in the world at that time defeated by in essence, former enslaved people who had no military training and they managed to defeat the French and the British.

So what that showed people back in Britain was that actually, and around the Caribbean, that if there was a slave revolt, if there was major resistance to enslavement, the idea that they could use force and that they would be better, more practised and better trained them the enslaved people fighting for their freedom.

Force was not going to guarantee you victory.

And if you can't use force, which was usually the go to.

There's a rebellion, let's use force to put it down.

If you can't rely on that, how are you going to stop these rebellions, these resistance from continuing? Well, the only logical way to stop it is to tackle the cause of the resistance and the cause was enslavement.

So people start to look at this and go, if slaves and enslaved people can resist successfully.

Then, we don't want that because then we're going to lose money.

We're going to lose our possession that we have on the Island, etc.

So, how are we going to stop that? Well, perhaps you need to end the practise of enslavement in order to end the resistance to it.

So there's this train of thought that's being developed again, it's a very slow burning train of thoughts.

It wasn't something that instantly changed.

In a much bigger picture, you've got the war with France.

So Britain and France are competing against each other for power in Europe, power around the world.

And part of that is resources, control of things like the sugar, the cotton, the tobacco trades in the Caribbean and the Americas.

And the struggle to have colonies.

Well, I said that in 1794, I believe the France had made slavery illegal.

And had abolished slavery.

Well, the gentlemen on your slide there is Napoleon.

He had restored enslavement of people in the French colony.

So he'd brought back slavery.

Now, what that then meant is for the British and a quite clever act called the abolition movement here.

What they did is they said that, if British merchants, so they are people that buy and sell things.

If British merchants sold enslaved people to French colonies, then actually those enslaved people would help France make money.

If France was making money, then that would help the French war against Britain.

So what they did is they said, why don't we stop the British trade with foreign countries colonies that use enslaved labour, enslaved workers in the Caribbean and the Americas.

And that way, we will harm the French war efforts because the French will not have as many people or enslaved people to buy and therefore to work on their plantations, they won't be able to make as much money.

And therefore they won't be able to fight as effectively or have as much weapons, etc, to fight against us with.

So what they did is, they passed and they got through Parliament as being an anti-French pro British, we're going to win the Napoleonic war, the 1806 Foreign Slave Trade Abolition Act.

And what it did is almost instantly, I'm not going to say that it completely ended it 'cause there were certainly some British merchant who continued this now illegal foreign slave trade.

But what it did, is the majority within the Americas and the Caribbean of selling and buying of enslaved labour was done internally in those areas.

So by banning it and making it illegal, the amount of money the British could make from transporting and selling enslaved people around the Caribbean islands and in the Americas reduced dramatically.

So it took a large percentage of the trade out.

So, basically helped make the slave trades within the Americas and the Caribbean less profitable for the British.

So war with France, again, it didn't lead to, and it didn't create the abolition of slavery overnight, but yet again, it created an argument of going well, if we've taken this step and we've abolished slavery and slave trading with all the other European nations, well, why don't we just abolish the entire slave trade completely.

We've gone so far, why don't we just make that next tiny step, further forward.

Religion, was another really important aspect.

And you've got a fantastic article that shows the depth of the religious views on slavery of people.

So this is from 1737, when they were 13 British or English colonies in this case, British colonies in America.

And you can see here that in 1737, there were religious reasons why people viewed the enslavement of people as being wrong.

So you have over the 18th century, new Protestants, religious scripts, like the Quakers towards the end of the 18th century, early 19th century, you have the evangelicals.

And these groups, they start to found societies to try and abolish the slave trade.

And the Quakers are really heavily involved in creating the society for the abolition of the slave trade in 1787.

And they take a very moral view of this.

They and say, morally, it is wrong to enslave people.

God created all men equal.

So, how can you be following the words of God and follow the Bible, if you are turning around and enslaving somebody.

Cause if you enslave them, you are turning round and saying that you are better than them 'cause you own them.

And they are not as good as you.

They're not equal.

So how are you following God's word? How are you following the Bible, if you believe and agree with enslavement? So they say it's morally wrong.

It's morally bankrupt.

And what you also have is missionaries being used.

Now missionary is somebody that wants to spread the word of God.

So missionaries go over to the Caribbean, they go over to the American colonies and they come back to Britain with stories about the conditions and what life is like on these plantations.

And they quite horrific and they start sharing these stories.

So now, ordinary people in Britain are starting to hear what it's actually like on these plantations.

And they starting to become horrified by it.

So quick recap, just like we did last lesson, I'm going to ask you to pause the video in a moment, copy out the sentences.

Remember, if there's a star, it's a vowel missing.

If it's a gap, then you've got to get the word.

But in this case for , it's a number.

So, pause the video, now.

Fantastic, really well done.

I know you've got spellings right.

So here we go, first statement one.

A slave revolt in Saint, S-A-I-N-T Domingue, D-O-M-I-N-G-U-E remember its U-E defeated the French and British.

The abolitionists, well done if you've got this spelt right.

A-B-O-L-I-T-I-O-N-I-S-T-S argued that to end slave revolts you had to end slavery.

S-L-A-V-E-R-Y.

180, did you get it? I can hear you shouting it out, six Foreign Slave Trade Abolition Act was signed.

A religious rethinking of the slave trade called it immoral.

I-M-M-O-R-A-L.

Many of the original abolitionists are? Did you get two, 'cause you looked at five, that's really clever that is.

Were from religious groups, such as the Quakers.

Q-U-A-K-E-R-S.

If you've got any wrong, than just rewind the video briefly to make sure you correct your mistakes, make sure your spelling are all done and correct, 'cause they're really important words that we need to be able to spell correctly.

I know you got five out of five.

Well done.

So let's continue with the lesson.

Anti-slavery societies also played their role in the abolition movements.

In 1787, the society for the abolition of the slave trade was created and the founding members, or many of the founding members of the society were Quakers.

Remember, the new religious groups that have been created during the 1700s.

Another important society that helped go for the abolition of the slave trade was the society for the Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade.

Now, there wasn't just these two societies.

There were many, many societies scattered all over Britain that were all trying to abolish the slave trade.

And what they did, is they sought to influence the ordinary people in Britain, but they also sought to influence Parliament in making sure that they would pass the law to abolish the slave trade.

And they did this through a variety of different ways.

Equiano, as we looked at earlier was really important in this.

Equiano gave public talks about his experiences when he was enslaved.

And he also wrote a book about his life as an enslaved person.

And so, the public talks would allow him to show and give his experiences to a small group of people.

But the book was able to influence a lot wider group, and it wasn't just books like Equiano's that played an important role, but that was pamphlets, leaflets, posters, all of these trying to persuade the ordinary people that the slave trade was immoral, was wrong.

And to do that, yes, they used people like Equiano, but there were also other ways they did it.

So they gathered evidence, they created petitions and they'd go around and get people to sign their names, to document saying, we would like to abolish the slave trade, will you support us? And people signed it, a famous one in Manchester.

So, a large percentage of Manchester's population sign a petition asking Parliament for the abolition of the slave trade.

But what evidence did they gather? Well, the society for the abolition slave trade, for example, they went down to Plymouth and they spoke to sailors who had participated on slave ships and they got their experiences of what happened and the horrors behind it.

They went and looked at ships logs, inspectors, ships captains, and they drew diagrams to show what a slave ship looked like.

And that goes back to the image you saw, right at the very beginning of this lesson of tight packing, where people are crammed together in horrible, horrible conditions where disease would spread really quickly.

And, they gathered all of this evidence.

They gathered the chains, the manacles that were used to enslave these people.

And they then took it to Parliament in order to try and persuade them to abolish the slave trade.

But it was a slow process.

The 1806 Act, abolishing foreign trade in slavery was 19 years, almost 20 years after the creation of the society for the abolition of the slave trade.

And it was 20 years before the Abolition of Slave Trade Act was passed.

So this was a very slow process in order to gain the necessary support from the ordinary people and from Parliament in order to get this abolition bill passed.

And then we come back down to money.

During this time periods, people start to realise that if you pay people to work for you, then they would work probably a little bit harder.

They'll be what's called more productive.

So they will produce more.

Whereas if you enslave somebody and you force them to work, then part of what is called passive resistance, that is where you don't fight.

Passive resistance would be that you do not work to your full efforts.

So, did enslaved people actually do or work as hard as they possibly could have done if they were paid.

So you start to see an argument, an economic, a money argument.

Was it cheaper to free your enslaved people working on the plantation and pay them a very small wage? And it would be a very small wage.

Or was it cheaper to keep them enslaved and continue to pay for things like their clothing, their food, etc.

And people start to realise that setting enslaved workers free and paying them a small wage and effectively, if you pay them a wage, they're going to have to buy their foods and things like that off you as a slave owner.

So, you recoup your money, you get your money back.

So people start to realise that paid work with small wages is actually more financially better for them than continuing enslavement.

But again, this is a very slow process for people to understand.

As part of the anti-slavery societies, thank courage a sugar boycott.

So thousands of people, again, it's not the majority of the population, but a minority, a small group of people in Britain, thousands of people in Britain stopped buying sugar.

Well, what is produced or the majority of things produced by enslaved labour was sugar, especially in places like Jamaica.

If people an't buying your sugar, the price drops because less people are buying it.

So the demand falls.

Well, if the price that you're getting when you sell it reduces, then you're going to make less money.

So again, the sugar boycott in Britain reduces the amount of money that these plantation owners and these merchants dealing within the slave trade are making.

So again, it's about questioning whether they can make money doing other things.

Remember, if you're looking at money, this has got nothing to do with morals, about the right or wrong belief of this system is purely how much money can I make? And again, as said earlier, the 1806 Foreign Slave Trade Abolition Act dramatically reduced the amount of money in the transportation and selling around the Americas and Caribbean of enslaved people.

The glossary then.

The transatlantic slave trade.

This was the trade of enslaved people from West Africa to the Americas.

The enslaved people were sold and goods such as tobacco and sugar were transported back to Europe.

The industrial revolution.

The start of using machine and factories to help improve manufacturing.

Colony.

The name given to a country which is owned by another country.

Merchants.

People who buy and sell products.

Morality.

Questioning whether something is right or wrong.

Petition.

A list of signatures asking for a change.

And a boycott.

When you stop buying something for a certain reason.

The comprehension questions then.

Which Island did the British fail to capture after a slave revolt? What restriction was put on the slave trade in 1806? Why did some Christian people oppose the slave trade? How did the anti-slavery societies try to end the slave trade? Why was the slave trade becoming less profitable at the start of the 19th century? And then, you can have a go the extension question, but we are going to plan it in a few moments time.

Why did ordinary people in Britain start wanting to abolish the slave trade? So pause the video now, read the worksheet and answer comprehension questions.

Fantastic.

Let's have a look at the answers, but remember we're after full sentences using key words from the question to give a good answer.

So, which Island to the British fail to capture after a slave revolt? An acceptable answer will be, Saint Domingue.

A good answer, again, like I said, full sentence.

There's some detail in there, use keywords in the question.

The British failed to capture Saint Domingue.

The British hoped to capture Saint Domingue as it was an important French colony.

The former enslaved people defeated the British.

Again, please remember you don't need to write down the same as I have.

Cause I know you will have got the important information.

Number two.

What restriction was put on the slave trade in 1806? Well, an accepted answer, some of the slave trade was stopped.

But a good answer would be, in 1806, Parliament banned British merchants, I'm using a key word.

From selling enslaved people to other nations' colonies.

This meant that the selling of enslaved people around the Americas was virtually ended and this made the trade unprofitable.

Why did some Christian people oppose the slave trade? An acceptable answer would be, they believed it was wrong.

A good answer, again remember we want keywords in the question.

We want some detail around it.

So, around the beginning of the 18th century, new Protestant groups were created.

Can you remember one of the most called begins Q? Well done, Quakers.

So you can improve my answer by adding such as the Quakers or evangelicals.

They found the idea of slavery morally.

So again, I'm using a key word wrong.

They argued that all men, according to the Bible, were born equal.

How could a Christian country following this teaching if they practised the slave trade? So how could Britain claim to be a Christian country that follows the Bible at this time when they enslaved people? Cause that wasn't keeping people equal.

How the anti-slavery societies try to end the slave trade? Well, an acceptable answer would be giving ideas about what it was, so petition and public talks.

A good answer is going to go into a lot more detail.

So the anti-slavery societies used many tactics, so obviously more than one.

To try and end the slave trade.

They held public meetings.

A regular speaker was Equiano, a former enslaved person, add in a bit of detail about Equiano.

Who spoke about his life and experiences.

Equiano also published a book about his life as an enslaved person.

They also collected petitions to send to Parliament to show the public's support for the abolition of the trade.

As well as persuading the people, Parliament was also shown the horrors of the slave trade, the personal accounts and artefacts.

Again, you could have included such as the chains worn by manacles being shown.

So well done if you've got a good answer on that one, really, really impressed.

Why was a slave tribe becoming less profitable at the start of the 19th century? Well, acceptable, using enslaved people was making less money.

But a good answer is going to build in those bullet points that we looked at earlier in this presentation.

So, the ability to make money though the slave trade and using enslaved labour, so work was falling.

This is shown by the collapse in sugar prices after the sugar boycott.

So again, I'm using a key element here, the sugar boycott.

Also, some I'm now building on this case.

In 1806, Parliament stopped British merchants from trading enslaved people with other countries.

This dramatically reduced the amount of trade available, and so this caused there to be less money available.

Finally, it was starting to be discovered that by paying those working on a plantation a wage instead of forcing them to work as enslaved people, helped the plantation owner make more money.

So, there's three reasons within that paragraph, all justifying why the slave trade was becoming less profitable.

So I'm really, really amazed and you've done a fantastic job.

If you got something similar to what I wrote as a good answer and well done.

If you want to alter any of your answers, then just go back in the video and correct yours responses and well done.

For the extension question.

Why did ordinary people in Britain start wanting to abolish the slave trade? And I've given you some sentence starters and key words there.

So, just pause the video, just have a quick think about what you could include.

So pause the video, now.

Brilliant.

I want to give you a bit more help though, before we start to try and answer this question.

So, I've given you five reasons for why people wanted the abolition of slave trade.

You've got slave resistance.

So using force to defeat this resistance was no longer meant success.

You've got the war with France, abolishing the slave trade would weaken the French colonies and the trade and the amount of money they could make, which were weaken France in fighting Britain.

The anti-slavery society with the petitions.

You've got the moral idea, with the religion and you got money that's becoming unprofitable.

So, what I'd like you to do is in a moment, pause the video and add as much data to those five categories as you can possibly think.

So pause the video now.

Fantastic, I know you've done really, really good work on that.

And you've got a really solid plan on which one you think was the main reason for people wanting to abolish the slave trade.

So you can compare your ideas to mine.

We all have a look at the next slide.

Oh, these are everything that I put down.

If you want to add some of mine to yours, and again, just pause the video and add it to your answer.

If you've got it all done, then you've done brilliant.

And you've taken all the key points from today's lesson and I'm really, really impressed with you, so well done.

So let's have a look at the question again.

Why did ordinary people in Britain start wanting to abolish the slave trade? Well, you've got your writing frame here.

You've now got a reasons, five reasons for people wanting to abolish the slave trade.

There is no right or wrong answer to this question.

It's entirely up to you and what you think based on what you've either looked at in this lesson or what you may have gone off and researched whilst doing this lesson in order to answer it.

So have a go at answering this question.

If you want to use the writing frame that's provided.

So pause the video, now.

Well done.

I'm so proud of you for writing and working so hard today.

Remember, if you want to share any of your work, then please ask your parent care or guardian to do so.

And you have one final thing left to do, and that is the exit quiz.

Well done for all your hard work today, and I look forward to seeing you for lesson three of four in this enquiry.