Speaking out against slavery
Date Posted: Friday, March 23, 2007Author: John Conrad
Ioan Gruffudd as abolitionist William Wilberforce in the film Amazing Grace
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“Oh the horrors of slavery! How the thought of it pains my heart! But the truth ought to be told of it; and what my eyes have seen I think it is my duty to relate; for few people in England know what slavery is. I have been a slave – I have felt what a slave feels, and I know what a slave knows; and I would have the all the good people in England to know it too, that they break our chains, and set us free…”
These are the words of Mary Prince, a Bermudian slave who became the first black British woman to publish an autobiography and a key figure in the abolition of slavery. When The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave, was published in 1831, it lifted the lid on a brutal world where slaves were bought and sold like cattle, worked into the ground and flogged for even the slightest misdemeanor. It galvanized the anti-slavery movement in the UK and helped pave the way for the abolition of slavery in 1833.
Born into slavery
Mary Prince was born into slavery at Brackish Pond in 1788. Her father was a sawyer and her mother a house servant. Her early life was relatively happy. Her owner, Mrs Williams, was a kind woman who treated her slaves well. Mary worked for Betsey Williams, who was around her own age. She recalled: “I was made quite a pet of by Miss Betsey, and loved her very much. She used to lead me about by the hand, and call me her little nigger. This was the happiest period of my life; for I was too young to understand rightly my condition as a slave, and too thoughtless and full of spirits to look forward to the days of toil and sorrow.”
As Mary grew older, she was exposed to the full horrors of slavery, including being separated from her family. At the age of 12 she was sold for 20 pounds to owners who regularly beat her until she was covered in blood and bruises. “To strip me naked – to hang me up by the wrists and lay my flesh open with the cow-skin, was an ordinary punishment for even a slight offence,” she wrote.
After five years she was sold to another master and in 1806 was sent to work on the salt pans in Turks Island. She was forced to stand in the sea for hours on end underneath the burning sun and her legs became covered in boils from the salt water. There was little rest and those who couldn’t keep up with the work were put in the stocks and flogged. Mary wrote of the treatment of her fellow slaves, including one called Daniel whose wounds were so bad they were infested with maggots. She also described the treatment of an elderly woman who was beaten and then thrown into a patch of pricky pears. Her body swelled and festered and she died a few days later.
Mary returned to Bermuda in 1818 and remained there until she was sold to John Wood, a plantation owner in Antigua. She began attending meetings of the Moravian church where she learned to read and write. In Antigua, she also met Daniel James, a former slave who had bought his freedom and now worked as a carpenter. The couple married in 1826. Wood was furious as she had not asked his permission to marry and regarded the marriage as an act of defiance. She was beaten with a horsewhip.
Bid for freedom
Mary was resilient intelligent and determined to free herself. She sold coffee and yams to sailors and washed clothes to earn money to buy her freedom. In 1828 she traveled with the Woods to London where her bid for freedom became a cause celebre. She became the first woman to present an anti-slavery petition to Parliament and although the Woods prevented her case from being discussed in Parliament, they were forced to return to Antigua without her. .
Alone in London and missing her husband, Mary approached the Anti-Slavery Society, which employed her and attempted to persuade Mr Woods to allow her to return to Antigua as a free woman. When they refused, she wrote her autobiography to tell people in England the about slavery. It was the first time the sufferings and indignity of slavery had been told by a woman and it caused a sensation. The book ran into three editions within a year of its publication, prompted lawsuits from the Woods and two prominent slavery supporters and advanced the cause of abolitionists with its searing account of life as a slave.
Mary concluded her book with the words: “This is slavery. I tell it, to let English people know the truth; and I hope they will never leave off to pray God, and call loud to the great King of England, till all the poor blacks be given free, and slavery done up for evermore.” Her hope was fulfilled. On August 23 1833, the Slavery Abolition Act outlawed slavery throughout the British colonies and in 1834 Bermuda's slaves were set free.
Timeline: The road to abolition
- 1787 Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade is formed.
- 1788 Mary Prince is born in Bermuda.
- 1789 Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African is published.
- 1790 William Wilberforce presents the first abolition bill to the House of Commons but it is not passed.
- 1792 The House of Commons votes in favour of the abolition of the slave trade but the bill is rejected by the House of Lords.
- 1794 France abolishes slavery and frees all slaves in her colonies.
- 1807 The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act is passed by the British Parliament. America also bans the slave trade, with the ban coming into force the following year.
- 1823 The Anti-Slavery Committee is formed in London to campaign for total abolition of slavery.
- 1831 The History of Mary Prince is published.
- 1833 The Abolition of Slavery Act is passed and provides for the emancipation of enslaved people in the British West Indies, to take effect in August 1834.
- 1835 The American slave ship Enterprise arrives in Bermuda after being blown off course by a hurricane. 78 slaves are discovered on board and all are freed under Bermuda’s laws. Only one chooses to return to the USA.
- 1865 The Thirteenth Amendment marks the abolition of slavery in the USA at the end of the American Civil War.
You can read Mary Prince’s account of her life in full by logging onto http://digilib.nypl.org/dynaweb/digs/wwm97262/@Generic__BookView