How important was the Evangelical Movement to the success of the anti-slavery campaign in the years 1800 - 1833?

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How important was the Evangelical Movement to the success of the anti-slavery campaign in the years 1800 - 1833?

The Evangelical Movement comprised several leading figures – Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp and William Wilberforce – united in the fight to abolish the slave trade. Brought together by their strong Christian beliefs, their attack on slavery was based on three main principals. Benevolence (treat your neighbour in the same way you yourself would wish to be treated), progressive revelation (when God’s providence is revealed it would bring war and destruction to nations who have acted immorally) and Salvation (those involved in slavery could not be spared on the Day of Judgement). The individuals in the Evangelical Movement certainly had a role to play in the anti-slavery campaign but there were also many other factors involved in its success, especially after 1807.

Firstly, Thomas Clarkson’s prize winning essay “…Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly the African…”, published in English in 1786, attracted a lot of attention and enabled him to meet other abolitionists, including Granville Sharp. Together they were instrumental in forming the Committee for the Abolition of the African Slave Trade in 1787. As part of the committee, Clarkson collected evidence and information about the slave trade to present to parliament and the public. He travelled around Britain, visiting the ports of Liverpool and Bristol, and gathered eyewitness accounts from sailors who had worked on slave ships. Clarkson also bought examples of equipment used on slave ships, including handcuffs, shackles and branding irons, which he used as powerful visual aids. Although he was absent from the movement for 9 years and his contribution wasn’t very wide, what he did nevertheless helped the anti-slavery campaign enormously. By showing the public highly evocative visual representations of the atrocities of the slave trade like the infamous engraving of The Brooks slave ship, he drew a lot of people’s attention which was vital if slavery was to be abolished.

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Similarly, Granville Sharp also had a big impact as he helped effectively outlaw slavery in Britain with the Somerset case. Sharp stopped a slave, James Somerset, from being shipped back to Jamaica by his master. When the case was put before Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice of England, he rendered his verdict in favour of Somerset and concluded there was no legal justification for slavery in England. Mansfield decided that a master had no right to force a slave to return to a foreign country so Somerset was set free. This verdict could then be used to question ...

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