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British Humanitarians and American Cotton, 1840–1860

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2009

Louis Billington
Louis Billington
Affiliation:
University of Hull
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Extract

Like other early nineteenth century religious and social reform movements the anti-slavery societies operated on a trans-Atlantic basis, with a regular exchange of ideas and personnel between Britain and the United States. The process was facilitated by the shared ideology and common background of many abolitionists on both sides of the ocean. This was especially true of the Quakers who had played such a prominent part in the early anti-slavery movement. British Quaker families were intermarried and maintained a network of religious and family contacts throughout the United Kingdom. They also maintained such close contacts with American Friends that historians have talked of a Quaker Atlantic community. That community shared many common social values and suffered similar religious tensions in its contacts with both Unitarianism and the more pervasive Evangelicalism.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , December 1977 , pp. 313 - 334
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

1 There is a growing literature on this subject, see, for example, Billington, Louis “Some Connections Between British and American Reform Movements, 1830–1860, With Special Reference to the Anti-Slavery Movement” (unpublished M.A. thesis, Bristol University, 1966)Google Scholar; Thistlethwaite, Frank, The Anglo-American Connection in the Early Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia, 1959)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and the more recent Fladeland, Betty, Men and Brothers: Anglo-American Anti-Slavery Co-operation (Urbana, 1972)Google Scholar.

2 Billington, pp. 88–98; Tolles, Frederick B., Quakers and the Atlantic Community (New York, 1960)Google Scholar; Isichei, Elizabeth, Victorian Quakers (Oxford, 1970)Google Scholar.

3 Nuermberger, Ruth K., The Free Produce Movement: A Quaker Protest Against Slavery (Durham, N. Carolina, 1942)Google Scholar and Wilkinson, Norman B., “The Philadelphia Free Produce Attack Upon Slavery,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 66 (1942), 294–313Google Scholar, provide important material on the eighteenth-century background and the nineteenth-century American movement, but throw little light on the British connection.

4 Genius of Universal Emancipation (Baltimore) 16 09 1829Google Scholar; Brief Sketch of the Life and Labours of Mrs. Elizabeth Heyrick (Leicester, 1862), pp. 17–18Google Scholar; Memoirs of Elizabeth Margaret Chandler (Philadelphia, 1845), pp. 27–29Google Scholar. See also Report of the Sheffield Female Anti-Slavery Association (Sheffield, 1827)Google Scholar.

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10 Harrison, Brian, Drink and the Victorians: the Temperance Question in England 1815–1872 (London, 1971)Google Scholar. The reference to liquor consumption is on p. 354.

11 Ellison, Thomas, The Cotton Trade of Great Britain (London, 1886), p. 86Google Scholar. Ellison shows that the United States provided approximately 80% of Britain's cotton between 1840 and 1860, while the percentage supplied from the West Indies declined from 0.31% to 0.07%.

12 Silver, Arthur W., Manchester Men and Indian Cotton 1847–1872 (Manchester, 1966)Google Scholar.

13 See below.

14 Richard, Henry, Memoirs of Joseph Sturge (London, 1865), pp. 386 ffGoogle Scholar; Bristol Gazette, 12 Nov. 1845; F. Tribe to John Scoble, Bristol, 5 Feb. 1846, Anti-Slavery MSS, Rhodes House, Oxford; MS Minutes of the Birmingham Anti-Slavery Society, 1846–1847, Birmingham Reference Library.

15 Nuermberger, pp. 13–34; Rhoads, Samuel, Considerations on the Use of the Productions of Slavery … (Philadelphia, 1844)Google Scholar; Garrison, Wendell P. and Garrison, Francis J., William Lloyd Garrison, the Story of His Life Told by His Children, 4 vols. (New York, 1885–1889), 1, 152, 2, 53, 393Google Scholar; The Non-Slaveholder (Philadelphia) 7 07 1846Google Scholar. During the initial enthusiasm for free labour in 1845–46, some British Garrisonians did co-operate in the movement: John Murray to Secretary of British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Glasgow, 17 Dec. 1845, Anti-Slavery MSS, Rhodes House, Oxford.

16 Samuel Rhoads to John Scoble, Philadelphia, 29 Sept. and 27 Nov. 1845, Anti-Slavery MSS, Rhodes House; The Non-Slaveholder, 02 1846 and 03 1846; SirPease, Alfred E. (ed.), Diaries of Edward Pease … (London, 1907)Google Scholar, entry for 17 April 1844; Samuel Rhoads to Henry Robson, Philadelphia, 10 october 1844, Friends House Library MSS, Friends House, London. Portfolio 6.

17 Anti-Slavery Reporter, Jan., Apr. and Dec. 1846, and Jan. 1847; Non-Slaveholder, Feb., Mar. and Nov. 1846; British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society Minute Book, 2, 27 Feb. 1846, Anti-Slavery MSS, Rhodes House.

18 MS Journal of Elihu Burritt, 3 Oct. 1846, Library of New Britain, Conn., henceforth cited as Burritt's Journal; Tolis, Peter, Elihu Burritt: Crusader for Brotherhood (Hamden, Conn. 1968)Google Scholar provides a useful description of Burritt's career, but is generally weak on the British background to it. See also Phelps, Christina, The Anglo-American Peace Movement in the Mid-Nineteenth Century (New York, 1930), pp. 64–65Google Scholar, and Brock, Peter, Radical Pacifists in Antebellum America (Princeton, 1968), pp. 178–220Google Scholar.

19 Burritt's Journal, 3 Oct. 1846.

20 Burritt's Journal, 27 Nov. 1846.

21 Rhoads to Scoble, Philadelphia, 29 Sep. and 27 Nov. 1845, Anti-Slavery MSS, Rhodes House; Burritt's Journal, 6–15 Oct. 1846.

22 Richard, p. 386; F. Tribe to Scoble, Bristol, 5 Feb. 1846, Anti-Slavery MSS, Rhodes House.

23 Non-Slaveholder, Jul. 1846.

24 Richard, p. 388.

25 British Friend (Glasgow), Jan. 1847.

26 Anti-Slavery Reporter, Feb. and Mar. 1847; Non-Slaveholder, Apr. 1847.

27 Burritt's Journal, 22 May–23 Aug. 1847; British Friend, Oct. 1847.

28 Tolis, pp. 145–203 indicates the range of Burritt's reform interests, and quotes, p. 156, some Garrisonian propaganda against him. For British Garrisonians see Temperley, pp. 209–20.

29 Non-Slaveholder, Mar. 1848.

30 Burritt's Journal, 19 Jan. and 17 Jun. 1848.

31 Henry and Anna Richardson: In Memoriam (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1893)Google Scholar.

32 Non-Slaveholder, Jun. 1848; British Friend, Apr. 1848; and MS Minutes of the Birmingham Ladies' Negro's Friend Society for 1848, Birmingham Reference Library.

33 Anti-Slavery Reporter, Mar. and Apr. 1848 and Oct. 1850. British Friend, Apr. 1848; American Slavery … And How to Abolish It (n.p., n.d.), the copy in the Anti-Slavery MSS, Rhodes House, includes a holograph letter from Anna Richardson to Scoble, New-castle-upon-Tyne, May 1848.

34 MS Minutes of the Birmingham Ladies' Negro's Friend Society for 1848, Birmingham Reference Library.

35 Burritt's Journal, 18 Mar. and 31 May 1849.

36 H. Richardson, A Revolution of Spindles for the Overthrow of American Slavery (n.p., n.d.).

37 Anna Richardson to Scoble, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, May 1848 in Anti-Slavery MSS, Rhodes House, British Friend, Feb. 1849.

38 Non-Slaveholder, Jun. 1849.

39 Non-Slaveholder, May. 1849; and Coffin, Levi, Reminiscences … (Cincinnati, 1869), pp. 225ffGoogle Scholar. Coffin acted as agent of the Philadelphia Free Produce Association and attempted to collect cotton in the South. He also ran a Free Labour Produce store in Cincinnati, which lost money.

40 British Friend, Feb. 1850 and Sep. 1853.

41 British Friend, Jan. 1850.

42 Anti-Slavery Reporter, Oct. 1850; Anna Richardson to the Secretary of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 19 Sept. 1850, in Anti-Slavery MSS, Rhodes House.

43 The Slave (London) 01 1851Google Scholar. See also Coffin, p. 296; Report of the Board of Managers of the Free Labor Association of the Friends of New York Yearly Meeting Adopted, 28th 5th mo. (New York, 1851)Google Scholar.

44 Burritt's Journal, 12 Apr. and 27 May 1850.

45 Burritt's Journal, 7 Mar. 1851; Burritt, Elihu, Ten Minute Talks on All Sorts of Topics … With the Autobiography of the Author (Boston, 1874), pp. 19–42Google Scholar.

46 An uncritical account of the Olive Leaf Societies can be found in Tolis, pp. 166ff. A clear picture of these women's circles can be found in the diary of Burritt's seventeen year old niece, MS Diaries of Anna Strickland, Central Connecticut State College Library, New Britain. Conn. Burritt received some support from outside Quaker circles. Mrs. Inglis was an Anglican, as was the John Fitzgerald who published Man Stealing by Proxy: Or the Guilt of Our Countrymen in Upholding Slavery … by the Purchase of Slave Grown Produce (London, 1850)Google Scholar. See Temperley, p. 229, for the general predominance of women in the later anti-slavery movement.

47 Burritt's Journal, 28 Oct. 1852 and 1 Nov. 1852.

48 The Slave, Jan. 1851; British Friend, Feb. 1850; Anti-Slavery Reporter, Oct. 1850; The Bond of Brotherhood (London), 12 1852Google Scholar; and The Olive Leaf Circles: Their Constitution and Operation (n.p., n.d.), copy in Friends' House Library, London.

49 Bristol Mercury, 19 Oct. 1850.

50 Burritt's Journal, 3 Mar. 1853.

51 Burritt's Journal, 22 Dec. 1852.

52 Burritt's Journal, 12 Feb. 1853. There was a free produce depot in Dublin by 1854; see Anna Richardson to L. A. Chamerovzow, 6 Feb. 1854, Anti-Slavery MSS, Rhodes House. For publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, see Temperley, pp. 224–28, and Fitzgerald, John, Christian Slaveholders Disobedient to Christ or Ten Thousand English Christians Invited to Protest Actively Against the Sin of the Church in the United States and to Cease from Purchasing the Produce of Slave Labour (London, 1854), esp. pp. 2 and 111–12Google Scholar, which gives details of the Walthamstow Free Produce Association.

53 Burritt's Journal, 18–30 Apr. 1853 and 1 May 1853; Richard, , Joseph Sturge, pp. 390–95Google Scholar.

54 The Slave, May 1853; Burritt's Journal, 2 May 1853; Annual Report of the Birmingham Ladies' Negro's Friend Society (Birmingham, 1853)Google Scholar.

55 Burritt's Journal, 23 May. 1853.

56 Burritt's Journal, 13–15 May 1853; The Slave, Jun. 1853; and Wilson, Forrest, Crusader in Crinoline (Philadelphia, 1941), p. 379Google Scholar.

57 Anti-Slavery Reporter, Jun. 1853; Richard, pp. 380–87.

58 The records of the Street Free Produce Store are in the Friends' House Library, London. Most important are the accounts and a series of circulars advertising the Free Labour Cotton Depot and providing samples of its goods.

59 Free Labour Cotton Depot Bath (n.p., n.d.), Friends' House Library.

60 MS Minutes of the Bristol and Clifton Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, 21 Jul. 1853, Dr. Williams' Library, London; Temperley, p. 241.

61 Anti-Slavery Advocate (London), 03 and 10 1853 and 06 1854Google Scholar; The Slave, Nov. 1853 and Jan. 1854. The Leeds Quaker, Wilson Armistead, who also co-operated with Garrison, supported free labour on “moral grounds,” but thought it a “dubious” means of bringing down slavery; see Wilson Armistead to L. A. Chamerovzow, 27 Nov. 1854, Anti-Slavery MSS, Rhodes House.

62 Account Book of the Street Free Produce Store, 3 Mar. 1855 and passim.

63 Details about Wingrave's activities can be found in The Slave, Jan. 1854, and the Account Book of the Street Free Produce Store cited above. The Carlisle Journal, 3 June 1853, gives details of the conditions of the handloom weavers and reports their attempts at forming co-operatives.

64 Anna Richardson to L. A. Chamerovzow, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 4 Nov. 1854, Anti-Slavery MSS, Rhodes House.

65 British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society Minute Book 3, 6 Oct. 1854, Anti-Slavery MSS, Rhodes House.

66 Ibid. and entry for 1 12 1854; Burritt's Journal, 24 Nov. 1854.

67 Henry Richardson to L. A. Chamerovzow, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 4 Oct. 1854; and South Shields, 14 and 16 Nov. 1854, Anti-Slavery MSS, Rhodes House.

68 Richardson, Anna, Anti-Slavery Memoranda (Newcastle, 1860)Google Scholar; Foner, Philip S., Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass (New York, 1950), 2, 350 and 565–66Google Scholar.

69 The Slave, Sep. 1853, Apr. and Jun. 1854.

70 To the Members of the Anti-Slavery Societies and All Friends of the Slave (n.p., n.d.), a circular in the Street Free Produce Store Collection, Friends' House Library.

71 Burritt's Journal, 18 Sep. 1854.

72 Circular cited above, n. 70.

73 Burritt's Journal, 21 Jan. and 14 and 16 Feb. 1854; The Slave, May 1855.

74 Burritt's Journal, 14 Apr. and 19 May–24 Aug. 1854.

75 Project for Planting Free Labour Colonies in the Slave States of America (n.p., n.d.), there is a copy in Friends' House Library. See also Burritt's Journal, 26 OCt. 1854.

76 Quotations are from copies of undated letters of John and Benjamin Ecroyd in Friends' House Library. See also Curti, Merle, The Learned Blacksmith: The Letters and Journals of Elihu Burritt (New York, 1937), pp. 123–26Google Scholar.

77 Burritt's Journal, 3 Jan. 1855; Temperley, p. 223; Craft, William, Running A Thousand Miles for Freedom or the Escape of William and Ellen Craft From Slavery (London, 1860)Google Scholar.

78 Burritt's Journal, 14 Oct. 1854 and 18 Jan. 1855.

79 Burritt's Journal, 31 Oct. and 5 Dec. 1854, and 14 Mar. 14 Apr. 1855. There is additional information about Burritt's abortive scheme in a MS Letter Book in Friends' House Library. This material is briefly described in Graveson, Samuel, “Elihu Burritt and Friends,” Journal of the Friends' Historical Society, 33 (1936)Google Scholar. See also Tolis, , Elihu Burritt, pp. 242 ffGoogle Scholar.

80 Burritt's Journal, 9 Dec. 1855, and 15–19 Feb. 1856; The Slave, Feb. 1856; and Elihu Burritt's MS Letter Book, pp. 401–404, letter dated New Britain, 22 Apr. 1856, in Library of New Britain, Conn. When Burritt returned to the United States Edmund Fry carried on The Slave for a few months but it was concluded in 1856, see Burritt's Journal 18 Jul.–29 Aug. 1856, and The Slave, May 1856.

81 Burritt's Journal, 4 Apr. 1857; Tolis, pp. 252 ff; Nuermberger, , Free Produce, pp. 21 and 40 ffGoogle Scholar; Wilkinson, “Philadelphia Free Produce,” pp. 308–13.

82 Annual Reports of the Birmingham Ladies' Negro's Friend Society (Birmingham, 1857–1860)Google Scholar; and British Friend, July 1857.

83 British Friend, Nov. 1857.

84 British Friend, Jan. 1859.

85 See Silver, , Manchester Men and Indian Cotton, pp. 58–201Google Scholar for interest in India. There is an account of British support for American Negro activity in West Africa in the late fifties in my thesis, cited above, see pp. 343–46, and pp. xxix–xl. See also the reprint of two major contemporary works, Campbell, Robert A. and Delany, M. R., Search for a Place: Black Separatism and Africa: 1860 (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1969)Google Scholar.

86 See above, and Isichei, , Victorian Quakers, pp. 185–86 and 212–79, esp. p. 233Google Scholar; and Harrison, , Drink and the Victorians, pp. 154–56Google Scholar. For further evidence of opposition among Friends to the free produce idea, see British Friend, May 1848 and Aug 1850.

87 Isichei, p. 223; Hobson, J. A., Richard Cobden, the International Man (London, 1918), pp. 71–72Google Scholar; Burritt's Journal, 22 Jul. 1851.

88 Billington, pp. 175–76; Burritt's Journal, 13 Aug. 1851.

89 Ellison, , Cotton Trade, p. 86Google Scholar, and table 2.