Background
Abolitionist Interactions
Birmingham: The Land of Freedom?
Directions for Learning
Background
In the 18th and 19th century, antislavery debate in
Birmingham could be heard from people of different racial origins
and class backgrounds. The important history of black antislavery
activists in the area can first be traced back to the visit of Olaudah
Equiano in 1790, who came to sell copies of 'The
Interesting Narrative' which told the story of his personal
escape from slavery, his life in the navy, business ventures, religious
conversions and development as an author. However, the history of
other black antislavery activists in Birmingham has only just started
to be recovered.
Whilst local abolitionist groups such as the 'Birmingham Anti-Slavery
Society', or the 'Ladies' Negro's Friend Society' inevitably remained
white middle class organizations, it is important to remember that
it would be Africans, West Indians and African-Americans who first
led the resistance against their own enslavement. It was their voices
that provided first hand evidence against slavery; it was their
physical, intellectual and creative spark of rebellion that lit
the fuse of the most striking campaigns. Black mutinies and uprising
were frequent.
Black activists who came into contact with Birmingham gave dramatic
accounts of their experiences and often sold copies of autobiographical
'slave narratives'. In this context, Olaudah Equiano, Frederick
Douglass, Moses Roper, William Wells Brown, Henry Highland Garnet,
Samuel Ringgold Ward, J.W.C. Pennington, Alexander Crummell, James
Watkins and the Rev. Peter Stanford all made a connection with Birmingham
and its surrounding areas, and influenced local views on slavery.
Other names may yet be discovered.
For more information on Frederick Douglass and James Watkins,
click on the two right hand icons. For a short exhibition on other
black abolitionists with connections to Birmingham, click here:
Black
Abolition in Birmingham
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Abolitionist Interactions
Black activists pursuing antislavery agendas arrived Birmingham
for a variety of reasons. In 19th century America, a 'Fugitive
Slave Law' meant that nowhere was safe for an escaped slave. Slave-catchers
could be legally employed to return the 'human property' to his
or her owner in the South. Faced with this crisis, many slaves fled
to Britain, where industrial towns like Birmingham might offer work
and refuge.
Not all 'fugitive' slaves were illiterate. Some were well-educated
antislavery speakers, lecturers and authors, intent on promoting
radical ideas of freedom among local audiences. Some black people
may have already 'bought' their own freedom. Others were religious
leaders, who communicated with local churches. Other may simply
have sought work as labourers: ex-slaves who arrived in Birmingham
alongside the great cosmopolitan influx of people from all around
the globe, a trend that allowed the town’s development into
a major site of labour and industry from the mid 18th century
onwards.
If most of the 'fugitives' or 'activists' would visit Birmingham
termporarily, it is likely that some probably ended up settling
in the area. Yet while partial accounts of a small number of ex-slaves
in Birmingham exist in their 'slave narratives', the majority were
unable to leave a record. We can often only reconstruct such stories
from fragments. Nevertheless, the current picture we have of the
relationship between black and white antislavery campaigners in
Birmingham is characterised by a range of experiences: co-operation,
argument, disagreement and, ultimately, a sense of shared struggle
in the fight to end the so-called gentlemen’s trade.
For example, the local abolitionist Joseph Sturge saw it as vital
to gain information and to practically support those that had experienced
slavery first hand. On his visit to the West Indies in 1837, Sturge
provided funds to emancipate a young black labourer named James
Williams; he also helped him to publish ‘A Narrative of Events
since the First of August, 1834, by James Williams, An Apprenticed
Labourer in Jamaica’. Yet the relationship between many ex-slaves
and white abolitionists appear not to have been easy; and whether
or not Williams ever visited Birmingham, we do not yet know.
We do know with more certainty about other black activists who
came into contact with Birmingham in the nineteenth century (a town
known for production of goods that were often used in the slave
trade). A good example of this is the case of the African-American
orator and intellectual Frederick Douglass who visited Birmingham
in 1846; or James Watkins, who came to Birmingham in 1852. You will
find more details on their lives in the following pages.
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Birmingham: The Land
of Freedom?
After the emancipation acts of 1807, 1833 and 1838, England seemed
to promise a new home of liberty for those who still remained slaves
in America and the West Indies. In reality, those who did manage
to make the perilous escape to England away from their plantations
or owners faced new problems. It is certain that the ex-slave, black
immigrant and abolitionist alike did not always find it to be the
‘land of freedom’ they might have imagined (see the
story of John
Thompson, for example). Once here, they would still have experienced
racism and danger. In this, black ex-slaves confronted social barriers
that also affected the town's early Irish and Jewish communities.
At the same time, Birmingham’s history of nonconformist ideas
meant it was often sensitive to the stories of black experience;
and the rise of mid-nineteenth century interest in 'abolition' meant
that black speakers could often find a willing audience. Birmingham
had already been drawing in different people from around the world
in search of a chance to work and settle. It was a town of religious
diversity. It was the town of the entrepreneur. From the 18th
to the 19th century, its culture changed and diversified.
For example, from the ex-slave ‘jubilee singers’ in
1874, to Paul Robeson in 1949, many black
musicians would appear here to great popular acclaim.
Set against this rapidly tranforming backdrop, the complicated
and still emerging details of the lives of black slaves in Britain
and Birmingham suggests they were not here merely as passive victims
of great historical injustice, but as powerful agents of their own
fortune, vital sources of activism in the global struggle for social
justice, campaigners, artists and workers who vitally contributed
to British culture and political freedoms. They are a crucial, and
often overlooked, part of Birmingham's story.
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Directions for Learning
Starting points for further discussion, or your own archive research, might include:
Why is so little evidence left of black antislavery campaigning in Birmingham, and how can we find new ways of using archives and other sources to recover their lost histories?
How does the work of these 19th century black activists anticipate later 20th century campaigns by people and communities from a wide range of racial and ethnic backgrounds in Birmingham?
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Image Reference:
Local Studies and History: 'The James Watkins Narrative', Aston
X, 310, Birmngham Vol 26.
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