•OUNDED in 1892, The Sewanee Review has steadily and consistently maintained its policy, announced in the first issue, of being a serious literary and critical journal. Avoiding all temptation to court wider popularity through mere timeliness in its articles, it has ever sought to serve as a repository of the literary essay and the critical review.

For the past ten years the magazine has drawn its contributions from a wide extent of country, representing thirty-eight states of the Union as well as England and Japan. New York leads with a total of thirty-three contributions out of a total of two hundred and sixtyfour; but nearly forty-five per cent have come from the South, so that the magazine has contributed its share towards helping to encourage and develop independence of thought, to mould public opinion, to raise the standards of taste and literary expression, and to reflect the best tendencies in the culture and the life of the Southern people. Though not unnaturally a large majority of the contributors have come from the colleges, The Review has not been merely an academic organ, but has covered a broad field of literature, art, history, economics, theology, and current questions, and has always tried to approach these subjects in a dignified manner, free from prejudice and undue partisanship.

The Sewanee Review is conducted by members of the Faculties of the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, but has no official connection with the University.

The

South Atlantic
Atlantic Quarterly

A General Survey of the Anti-Slavery
Movement in England

FRANK J. KLINGBERG

Professor of Modern European History in the University of Southern California

The movement against slavery in England developed in the last three decades of the eighteenth century. The great stimulus to the cause of emancipation came in 1772, when Lord Mansfield gave his celebrated decision that a slave as soon as he touches English soil is free. This caused William Cowper to write

"Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free."

This decision by Lord Mansfield led to agitation and organization against slavery in the colonies. The first efforts were directed against the source of the evil, the slave trade, which was in itself a more horrible thing than the simple maintenance of slavery, for the cruelties committed in carrying on this traffic were almost beyond description—“the sum of all human villainies," said Wesley. The philanthropists reasoned that if they could suppress the trade in slaves, they would at the same time render the condition of those already in the West Indies more tolerable, because as long as an unlimited supply could be obtained from Africa, it was cheaper to import them than to raise them. In consequence of this, it was the custom of owners in the islands to work their slaves hard for a few years and then replace them by fresh arrivals. With the source of supply shut off, however, the price of slaves was expected to rise, so that it would be a matter of self-interest to treat them humanely and to provide for their physical comfort. This was the principle which the men who formed

"The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade" had in mind.

By directing their efforts against the slave trade, they diminished the amount of opposition and did not interfere directly with the property of the colonists, nor raise the constitutional question of the power of Parliament over the internal affairs of the colonies. After the Treaty of Paris which ended the war of American Independence, the situation of the West Indies was greatly altered for the reason that the restrictive commercial system of England was applied by the British Parliament against the United States, partly to injure the new nation and partly to encourage intercourse with the British North American colonies. But this policy cut the natural channels of trade between the West India Islands and the United States-a trade which the course of years had proved to be mutually beneficial, and almost indispensable to the former.

As a consequence of these trade restrictions, the sugar islands suffered severe distress, and many negroes perished. In fact the governors of the colonies often found it necessary, in despite of the law, to admit American food supplies to alleviate the suffering of the slaves. These tragedies attracted the attention of the British people, and the death of so many negroes stimulated the slave trade.

Such was the condition of the islands when "The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade" was organized in London under the untiring presidency of Granville Sharp. The objects of the Society were to raise funds and obtain information for the campaign against the slave trade. The man engaged to collect information was Thomas Clarkson, who had become interested in the question of slavery and the slave trade while a student at Cambridge, and had written a prize essay on the subject. He proved a very zealous and efficient agent and obtained much valuable information.

Before long such an interest had been aroused in the question that petitions poured into Parliament. In the House of Commons the leadership of the cause was taken by William Wilberforce, who became the great champion of emancipation. He was a bosom friend of Pitt, represented the largest con

stituency in England, was noted for his piety, and was gifted with wonderful eloquence. He was, moreover, well fitted for the position of leader, because he was endowed with unusual perseverance, and never lost his courage or temper. He was supported by such men as Pitt, Fox, and Burke, while arrayed against him was the slave interest in its various forms, including not only those directly interested in the traffic, but all those concerned in the prosperity of the West Indies, which were at that time deemed the most valuable English colonial possession. Canada was yet in its infancy, and there was not at that time a great demand for the products of the temperate zone. Europe wanted what the West Indies supplied and what the continent could not cultivate-sugar, coffee, cotton, tobacco, and spices.

The fight on the question of the extinction of the slave trade was waged vigorously by both sides. In 1792, the emancipation party was strong enough to carry through the Commons a bill for the abolition of the trade, the measure to become effective in 1796. Unfortunately for the success of the cause, the war with France broke out and checked all reform movements in England. The outbreak of this war was soon followed by a horrible insurrection of slaves in the French. portion of San Domingo, which brought to an end all cultivation in that prosperous island, and practically destroyed the greatest sugar producing district in the world. This insurrection accompanied the abolition of the slave trade and of slavery by France, and was held out as a warning to the English people, who were cautioned against all doctrines from a Jacobin source, including interest in the negro.

But on the other hand, the ruin of the French West Indies caused great prosperity in the British Islands. In 1772, Jamaica had exported only 11,000 hogsheads of sugar, but in the six years succeeding 1793 her exports rose to 83,000 annually, and in 1802 to 143,000. The other British Islands also shared in about the same proportion the advantage which had resulted from the ruin of the French Islands. But by 1807 some of the English planters feared that at the restoration of peace the prosperity of the non-British Islands would revive, and for this reason they were not as much opposed to abolition as they