Viewpoints: Debating the Slave Trade

The British dominated the eighteenth-century transatlantic slave trade, and it was in this period that the trade reached its peak. By the end of the century, however, British public opinion was beginning to turn against the slave trade. Inspired by a complex mix of ideological, religious, and economic motives, antislavery organizations emerged to challenge Britain’s involvement in the export of human beings from West Africa to the Americas. The efforts of such groups would culminate in the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire in 1807 and the abolition of slavery itself in 1833. The two documents included in this feature provide an opportunity to gain a better understanding of the public debate that preceded those historic antislavery acts. The first, written by the wife of an English naval surgeon, defends the slave trade on moral and religious grounds. The second, written by a victim of the trade and an antislavery activist, presents the horror, disorientation, and despair of enslavement in vivid detail. As you read these selections, ask yourself how two people could witness similar events and produce such vastly different accounts.