trans-atlantic slave trade essay help?

Question

Ok i've decided to do my essay on the britsh abolition of the trans-atlantic slave trade in 1807/08.

My problem is that i don't know how to make a specific thesis. What should i concentrate? How do i make it specific (essays can't be broad) enough but not have a hard time writing 8-10 pages?

Answer 1

Before the 1750s there was no organized opposition to slavery, and no real debate on the subject. In 1754 a New Jersey Quaker named John Woolman published a piece called "Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes", which argued that keeping slaved was a threat to the salvation of the souls of their masters, since the masters would always be tempted to exploit the slaves. This caught on fast and the movement in Europe and the New World had grown substantially by the early part of the next century.

Arguments in favor of slavery grew synchronously with arguments against it. In 1793 Archibald Dalzel published "A History of Dahomey", which detailed the cruel nature of East African societies of the time and suggested that Africans who were not sold to Europeans would simply have been executed.

Europeans were at first concerned about the Middle Passage and what happened to slaves in Europe and the New World, and not at all concerned with slavery in Africa. This was gradually replaced by claims that slavery was destructive to life in Africa, especially after the descriptions of the explorer David Livingstone were published in the 1850s.

Europeans gradually came to claim that Africans were barbarians and needed to be civilized, and the anti-slavery movement was mobilized in the service of the colonial conquest of Africa right up through the early part of the 20th century. Europeans who had previously considered African rulers to be their enemies came to see them as allies, and the abolition of slavery was eventually removed from its original moral and spiritual basis and undertaken in the name of power and politics attempting to stabilize and control regions of Africa.

In other words, anti-slavery arguments started out as religious concerns, but eventually were co-opted by Europeans claiming they had a responibility to "civilize" Africa through conquest. You could try to trace this transition and show what happened that turned the argument against slavery away from one pertaining to the salvation of the soul into one which supported the cause of European colonial struggles.

Just a suggestion. Good luck on your essay!

Answer 2

Maybe compare how British Abolition worked out peacefully while we fought our tragic Civil War.

What were the economic, political and cultural differences that allowed the United Kingdom to abolish slavery without secession or losing colonies? Was it as simple as a much more developed agragarian plantation system in the U.S.? How were "natives" treated in colonies for almost another 150 years that was different than slavery? Any one of these might take 8 pages, depending on depth.

Answer 3

You have a number of options. These are the ones I see most clearly:

1) The British abolished the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in 1807/1808 not for any humanitarian reason, but for simple economic gains.

2) The British abolished the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in 1807/1808 for Humanitarian reasons, rather than for any specific financial reasons.

best of luck.

Answer 4

Primarily, you want to look at the political scene. Who pushed the bill though parliament (There is a statue of him in Freetown.). What everybody else was doing (This had implications for the Royal Navy). Also, look at the historical reasons for slavery. I.E. Spain. The myth of canibalism and the Papal sanction, etc. I would also look at the British set up, who benefited, logistics (Blackbirders and slave ports), also looking at procurement.

So I think you need a general overview of the opperation and the political/economic background (Perhaps 1 - 2 pages, nothing major) before launching into why/how it changed, concluding with the aftermath and policing.

Luck