Transatlantic Abolitionism in the Age of Revolution, c. 1760-1833

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the means and processes whereby transatlantic slavery was brought to an end. As a result, we probably know more than we ever did about 'cultures of abolition', about the mobilisation of public opinion against slavery and the slave trade and about the emergence of abolition as a political force. In most cases, however, the context of this research is domestic or national. By contrast, the current proposal aims to rescale abolition and to place it in a larger setting, that is, the Atlantic world of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
From the first, abolitionists operated on a transatlantic basis. One thinks, for instance of the friendship between Granville Sharp and Anthony Benezet, which was forged during the 1770s, and the co-operative efforts between British, French and American abolitionists during the 1780s and 1790s, which set the pattern for transatlantic contacts and alliances that would persist into the nineteenth century. How did abolitionists on both sides of the Atlantic interact with one another? To what extent did they constitute a mutually supportive network? What challenges did they face? This research aims to answer these questions by looking at a number of areas of activity. The first of these is the circulation of ideas and information across and within the Atlantic world. Large numbers of abolitionist books and pamphlets were reprinted in the United States, for instance, as were many French texts. As a result, men like Thomas Clarkson became truly international figures. One aim of this research is to reconstruct these 'circuits of knowledge', thereby enabling us to understand how transatlantic abolitionism worked. Another is to explore how transatlantic abolitionist networks evolved over time, what sustained them, and the extent to which transatlanticism clashed with specific national agendas.
Critical to this inquiry is the impact of war and revolution on transatlantic debates about slavery. I am particularly interested in the role of the Caribbean in these debates. The Caribbean was a region of increasing strategic significance to Britain and France, particularly after the 1791 slave rebellion in Saint Domingue. If anything war and revolution brought Britain and France into closer contact with their Caribbean colonies, in the process re-energising debates about the morality and purpose of slavery, as well as the morality and purpose of empire. In Britain, for instance, the French Revolutionary Wars (1793-1803) provoked a lively debate about the unhealthiness of the Caribbean climate and its association with disease, notably yellow fever. The unhealthiness of the Caribbean chimed with its moral and social decay, at least as viewed through the eyes of British observers, many of whom wrote and published damaging accounts of the region.
Another aim of this research will be to explore the impact of war and revolution on slavery debates in France, from 1791 through to the 1830 Revolution. Here again, unfolding events in the Caribbean brought abolitionists together, just as they magnified the differences between them. American abolitionists, in particular, seemed to become more introspective after 1808, but even here the Caribbean had an impact. Indeed, the role of Emancipation (that is, the abolition of British colonial slavery in 1883) in promoting American abolitionism during the 1830s and 1840s is another dimension of what I have chosen to call transatlantic abolitionism.
The research for this project will be undertaken on both sides of the Atlantic and draw on archive collections in London, New York and Philadelphia. It will also make use of prints and drawings and literary sources held in London (e.g. British Museum) as well as the US (e.g. Yale Centre for British Art), and draw on the work currently being undertaken at the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation on European abolitionism.

There are three main beneficiaries beyond academia who will benefit from this research. The first of these is national and international organisations interested in human and/or civil rights and in the history ad legacies of slavery (e.g. UNESCO, Amnesty International). The second is the third sector and specifically museums and galleries. Since the 1980s there has been a spectacular growth in the number of museums and galleries devoted to slavery, among them the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, 'London, Sugar and slavery' at London Docklands Museum and 'Breaking the Chains' at the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol. The 2007 bicentenary of the abolition of the British slave trade also stimulated a large number of local community projects on slavery and abolition, many of them supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. This leads on to the final group of beneficiaries beyond academia,namely local communities, schools and the wider public in general. The study of slavery is now a compulsory part of the National Curriculum and, as such, feeds into wider debates about citizenship, notably at Key Stages 3 and4. It is also an increasingly familiar theme in fiction, broadcasting and the media in general.
The research would benefit these different groups in a number of ways. It would help them to understand the wider international reach of abolitionism and the extent to which abolitionists constituted a transatlantic community. It would also help them to understand the contours of wider debates about human rights and the extent to which the American and French revolutions impacted on these debates. Finally, it would enable all of these different groups to understand how the Caribbean and perceptions of the Caribbean impacted on debates about the morality and purpose of slavery, as well as the morality and purpose of empire. All of this is particularly relevant to current debates about citizenship, social inclusion, state power and individual liberties.
What will be done to ensure that these groups will benefit? First and foremost, I plan to exploit my contacts with museums and galleries, chief among them the National Maritime Museum (NMM) in London. I was one of the historical advisors who worked on the NMM's 'Atlantic Worlds' gallery, which opened in November 2007, and continue to work closely with the NMM's research staff. One of my objectives is to seek ways of feeding my work into the NMM's activities and, through them, to engage with schools and the wider public in general. Similarly, I plan to exploit my contacts with the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation to engage educationalists and, where appropriate, NGOs and international organisations interested in human rights and/or the history and legacies of slavery.
Finally, I intend to engage local communities and the wider public in general through lectures, seminars and public events. I did a lot of this sort of work in 2007 and, as a result, built up a number of important contacts with local history societies (largely through the Historical Association), with museums (e.g. NMM, Horniman Museum, Wilberforce House Museum, Hull, International Slavery Museum) and galleries (e.g. National Portrait Gallery). There is also an obvious international dimension to this research and here I would aim to exploit the contacts I have with the Gilder-Lenhrman Foundation, New York, the Lewis Walpole Library, Farmington, Connecticut, the Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, and the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic world Program at the College of Charlesotn.