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AbolitionYou are in: Devon > Abolition > The abolition movement in Devon 
Slave traders walked Plymouth's streets The abolition movement in DevonBy Shaun Standfield, Plymouth Library Service Devon's Quakers had a big part to play in the campaign to abolish the slave trade. And an anti-slavery leaflet, first published in Plymouth in 1788, became a key document in the nationwide abolitionist movement. The movement towards the abolition of slavery began many years before the Abolition Act of 1807 and continued long after it, in order to ensure its enforcement. In Devon, the origins of the abolition movement can be traced back to early Quakers. George Fox, the founder of the movement, openly charged Barbados plantation owners of ill-treating slaves in 1671. Encouraged by their American brethren, by the 1780s the Quakers in England were actively organising for abolition. Across Devon at that time there were Quaker meetings in Plymouth, Kingsbridge, Modbury, Exeter, Cullompton, Newton Tracey and Spiceland in Culmstock parish. 
Plantation slaves were literally worked to death A letter sent to the Devon quarterly meeting in Plymouth from the Yearly Meeting for the Sufferings in London, dated 17 August 1784, highlighted the 'just abhorrence of the iniquitous traffic carried on to the coast of Africa for slaves, and of the cruel treatment they meet'. Enclosed were 400 leaflets headed 'The Care of our Fellow Creatures, the Oppressed Africans', which were distributed around Devon to Justices of the Peace, businessmen and clergymen. Minutes taken at the monthly meeting in Kingsbridge held on 1 November 1785 reveal the extent to which Quakers removed themselves from the slave trade. They refused to pay 'tithes, priests demands, and those called Church rates' opposing the involvement of the established Church of England in the slave trade. When compensation was awarded to slave owners following the Abolition of Slavery Act in 1833, the Right Rev Henry Philpotts, the Bishop of Exeter, received almost £13,000 - more than £1 million today. Bishop Philpotts, together with three partners, received a total of £12,729 4s 4d for 665 slaves:
Prominent abolitionist Thomas Clarkson. Photo: NPG A fellow member, Thomas Clarkson, launched similar committees around the country. In Plymouth, an abolition committee first met in 1788. It was chaired by banker Sir William Elford and included members of the Cookworthy family, the lawyer John Prideaux, and the clockmaker Samuel Northcote. Support also came from John Bidlake, headmaster of Plymouth Grammar School. Later, a committee was also formed in Exeter and included banker Samuel Milford, the Unitarian minister James Manning and Thomas Sparkes, who was an active campaigner throughout the county. In 1788, the Plymouth committee published a leaflet that included a harrowing image of the slave ship Brookes with 454 Africans crammed aboard. 
The original Plymouth Brookes leaflet. Photo: BRO The image was adapted in London and distributed nationwide, bringing widespread support for the abolitionist movement. Devon committees organised public meetings throughout the county, including Crediton, Moretonhampstead and Topsham, as reported by the Exeter Flying Post newspaper. The paper also reported pro-abolition sermons, including Trefuis Love preaching in Ashburton 'against irreligious, inhuman and inpolitic slavery'. Clarkson visited Devon again in 1790. Having heard that an unknown seaman would tell of atrocities off the coast of Africa, Clarkson set out to find him. He visited every port along the south coast of Devon. Clarkson found his man, Isaac Parker, in Plymouth, aboard the frigate Melampus. Another abolitionist with Devon links was the freed slave Olaudah Equiano, known as Gustavus Vassa. As a 12-year-old visiting Plymouth in 1757, Equiano's Christian faith was strengthened when he witnessed a woman with her baby fall unharmed from the top deck of a ship into the deepest hold. Of a later visit to Devon, Equiano wrote in his autobiography An Interesting Narrative: "On January the seventh, 1777, we arrived at Plymouth…; and, after passing some little time at Plymouth and Exeter among some pious friends, whom I was happy to see, I went to London…" 
Portrait of Sir Charles Morice Pole. Photo: DCMS During March and April 1787, four ships carrying over 400 black passengers stayed in Plymouth before sailing to establish a colony in Sierra Leone. Equiano co-led the mission until the fleet sailed from Plymouth. The final Abolition Bill was debated in Parliament in 1807. Although passed by 283 votes to 16, the Plymouth MP Sir Charles Morice Pole opposed the bill. Pole represented a very small minority, as both the county and the people of Devon played a hugely significant role in the abolitionist cause. Portrait Sir Charles Morice Pole (1757-1830) Listen to some audio features about the slave trade in Devon and how it came to be abolished:
Audio and Video links on this page require Realplayer last updated: 23/08/07 You are in: Devon > Abolition > The abolition movement in Devon
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