The Slave Trade Act 1788, also known as the Regulated Slave Trade Act 1788 or Dolben's Act, was an Act of Parliament that limited the number of enslaved people that British slave ships could transport, based on the ships' tons burthen (bm). It was the first British legislation enacted to regulate slave shipping.[1]
In the late 18th century, opposition to slavery was increasing. Many abolitionists were aroused by the Zong massacre, whose details became known during litigation in 1783, when the syndicate owning the ship filed for insurance claims to cover 132–142 slaves who had been killed. Quakers had been active in petitioning Parliament to end the trade. To expand their influence, in 1787 they formed a non-denominational group, the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, which included Anglicans of the established church (non-Anglicans were excluded from Parliament).
In 1788, Sir William Dolben led a group of his fellow Members of Parliament to the River Thames to board and examine a ship being fitted for a slaving voyage.[2] Dolben had been in contact with the Abolition Society in the previous year. His visit to the slave-ship appears to have hardened his opposition to the slave trade.[3]
The Society's campaigning led the Prime Minister, William Pitt, to order an investigation into the slave trade. He also asked William Wilberforce to begin a debate in the House of Commons on the issue.[4] However, by May 1788, the trade committee of the Privy Council—which Pitt had tasked with investigating the slave trade—had not produced its report.
On 9 May 1788, Pitt introduced a motion to the House of Commons which asked whether parliament should delay its consideration of the slave trade until its next session.[5] He argued that the great number of anti-slavery petitions that had been presented to the House on this topic meant that a proper consideration of the issue could not occur with so little time left in the current parliamentary session.[6] Representatives from Liverpool, a city whose merchants controlled much of the British slave trade and whose economy was deeply tied to it, welcomed Pitt's motion. They argued for a debate to enable them to refute the accusations about the slave trade made in the petitions submitted to the House.[7]
Sir William Dolben, representing Oxford University, eventually rose to speak. He argued that 10,000 lives would be lost if the House did not immediately intervene to curtail the abuses perpetrated during the Middle Passage.[8] He said that immediate measures should be introduced to restrict the number of Africans that slave ship captains could take on board, as a means to reduce losses. This would reduce mortality due to the diseases of overcrowding and poor sanitation.[3] Although Dolben opposed the slave trade, he did not at this time propose abolishing it or the institution of slavery.[3]
Dolben's speech was disputed by Lord Penrhyn, one of the two MPs for Liverpool. He claimed that captains were highly motivated to preserve the lives of as many slaves as possible, so that they could profit from their sale.[9]
Encouraged by Pitt, Dolben drafted a bill and submitted it to the House on 21 May.[9] The bill passed its second reading on 17 June, and its third reading the following day.[10] It was sent to the House of Lords, where it was approved in its first, second, and third readings, the last of which occurred on 2 July.[11] However, because the Lords had amended the bill—adding a compensation clause, which the Commons felt infringed its right to deal exclusively with money matters—a new bill was drafted, passed, and resubmitted to the Lords. This was passed by them on 10 July, and received royal assent soon after.[12] It was the first British legislation to regulate slave ships.[1]
Provisions
Plan of the slave ship Brookes, carrying 454 slaves after the Slave Trade Act 1788. Previously it had transported 609 slaves and was 267tons burden, making 2.3 slaves per ton.
The act held that ships could transport 1.67 slaves per ton up to a maximum of 207 tons burthen, after which only 1 slave per ton could be carried.[14]
The provisions of the 1788 act expired after one year, meaning that the act had to be renewed annually by Parliament. Dolben led the effort to do this in subsequent years, so he regularly spoke against the slave trade in Parliament.[15] The act was renewed between 1789 and 1795 and between 1797 and 1798. In 1799 the provisions of the previous acts were made permanent through the Slave Trade Act 1799.[16]
Support and opposition
The act was supported by some abolitionists, including Olaudah Equiano, an African who was a former slave. But, some abolitionists, such as William Wilberforce, feared that the act would establish the idea that the slave trade was not fundamentally unjust, but merely an activity that needed further regulation.[2]
Effects
The mortality of slaves on British ships declined during the 1790s. This act helped to lower the overall mortality rate of British ships during the 1790–1830 time period.[17] Due to the lower density of slaves, illnesses could be controlled and food rations would last longer. During this period, ship captains were also given incentives for lower mortality rates.[18] As their incentives would grow, their mortality rates would continue to lower. This information could have been manipulated by greedy captains but the research shows a general downward trend.[17]
The historian Roger Anstey has suggested that this decline might be explained by the restrictions of the Act,[14] but the research of several other historians has suggested that there is no demonstrable relationship between reduced crowding and lower mortality rates amongst slaves.[19] More recent research suggests that early work was plagued with measurement error by bad record-keeping, and the act reduced crowding-related mortality.[20] Slave mortality on Dutch ships, which were not subject to restrictions on the number of slaves carried, did not decline during the same period.[21][22]
Anstey, Roger; Hale, P. F. H., eds. (1989). Liverpool, the African Slave Trade and Abolition. Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. ISBN978-0950359151.
Anstey, Roger (1975). The Atlantic Slave Trade and British Abolition 1760–1810. Prometheus Books.
Eltis, D.; Engerman, S. L. (1993). "Fluctuations in Sex and Age Ratios in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, 1663–1864". The Economic History Review. 46 (2): 308. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.1993.tb01335.x.
Haines, R.; Shlomowitz, R. (2000). "Explaining the mortality decline in the eighteenth-century British slave trade". The Economic History Review. 53 (2): 262–283. doi:10.1111/1468-0289.00160.
Hochschild, Adam (2005). Bury the Chains. London: Pan Books.
Garland, Charles; Klein, Herbert (1985). "The Allotment of Space for Slaves aboard Eighteenth-Century British Slave Ships". William and Mary Quarterly. 42 (2): 238–248. doi:10.2307/1920430. JSTOR1920430.
Klein, H. S.; Engerman, S. L.n; Haines, R.; Shlomowitz, R. (2001). "Transoceanic mortality: The slave trade in comparative perspective". The William and Mary Quarterly. 58 (1): 93–117. doi:10.2307/2674420. JSTOR2674420. PMID18629973.
LoGerfo, James (1973). "Sir William Dolben and "The Cause of Humanity": The Passage of the Slave Trade Regulation Act of 1788". Eighteenth-Century Studies. 6 (4): 431–451. doi:10.2307/3031578. JSTOR3031578.
Oldfield, J. R. (2010). "The London Committee and mobilization of public opinion against the slave trade". The Historical Journal. 35 (2): 331–343. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00025826. S2CID155017321.
Sanderson, F. E. (1972). "The Liverpool Delegates and Sir William Dolben's Bill". Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. Vol.124. pp.57–84.
Sheridan, R. B. (1981). "The Guinea surgeons on the middle passage: The provision of medical services in the British slave trade". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 14 (4): 601–625. doi:10.2307/218228. JSTOR218228. PMID11632197.
Steckel, R. H.; Jensen, R. A. (2009). "New Evidence on the Causes of Slave and Crew Mortality in the Atlantic Slave Trade". The Journal of Economic History. 46 (1): 57–77. doi:10.1017/S0022050700045502. PMID11617310. S2CID29092089.
Walvin, James (2011). The Zong: A Massacre, the Law and the End of Slavery. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. ISBN978-0-300-12555-9.
Webster, J. (2007). "The Zong in the Context of the Eighteenth-Century Slave Trade". The Journal of Legal History. 28 (3): 285–298. doi:10.1080/01440360701698403. S2CID144216755.
The Middle Passage was the stage of the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas as part of the triangular slave trade. Ships departed Europe for African markets with manufactured goods, which were then traded for slaves with rulers of African states and other African slave traders. Slave ships transported the slaves across the Atlantic. The proceeds from selling slaves were then used to buy products such as furs and hides, tobacco, sugar, rum, and raw materials, which would be transported back to Europe to complete the triangle.
The Zong massacre was a mass killing of more than 130 enslaved African people by the crew of the British slave ship Zong on and in the days following 29 November 1781. The William Gregson slave-trading syndicate, based in Liverpool, owned the ship as part of the Atlantic slave trade. As was common business practice, they had taken out insurance on the lives of the enslaved Africans as cargo. According to the crew, when the ship ran low on drinking water following navigational mistakes, the crew threw enslaved Africans overboard.
Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea coast in West Africa.
The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, also known as the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and sometimes referred to as the Abolition Society or Anti-Slavery Society, was a British abolitionist group formed on 22 May 1787. The objective of abolishing the slave trade was achieved in 1807. The abolition of slavery in all British colonies followed in 1833.
Brooks was a British slave ship launched at Liverpool in 1781. She became infamous after prints of her were published in 1788. Between 1782 and 1804, she made 11 voyages in the triangular slave trade in enslaved people. During this period she spent some years as a West Indiaman. She also recaptured a British merchantman and captured a French merchantman. She was condemned as unseaworthy in November 1804.
The Sons of Africa were a late-18th-century group in Britain that campaigned to end African chattel slavery. The "corresponding society" has been called the Britain's first black political organisation. Its members were educated Africans in London, including formerly enslaved men such as Ottobah Cugoano, Olaudah Equiano and other leading members of London's black community.
Sir William Dolben, 3rd Baronet (1727–1814) was a British Tory MP and a zealous campaigner for the abolition of slavery.
John Kimber was the captain of a British slave ship who was tried for murder in 1792, after the abolitionist William Wilberforce accused him of torturing to death an enslaved teenaged girl on the deck of his ship. Kimber was acquitted, but the trial gained much attention in the press. The case established that slave ships' crew could be tried for murder of slaves.
Eliza was launched in America in 1780 and taken in prize in 1782. She entered the Liverpool registry in 1783, 1786, and again in 1792. She made nine voyages as a Liverpool-based slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She was lost in an explosion on her tenth voyage after she had already embarked her captives. All the captives died, as did her captain and most of her crew. The explosion occurred during a single ship action on 17 December 1797, with a French privateer.
Sarah was launched at Liverpool in 1797. She then made six voyages as a Liverpool-based slave ship in the triangular trade carrying enslaved people from West Africa to the West Indies. A French privateer captured Sarah in 1804 in a single-ship action on her seventh voyage after Sarah had gathered her slaves but before she could deliver them to the West Indies.
African Queen was built at Folkestone in 1780, though almost surely under a different name. In 1792, she became a Bristol-based slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She made two complete voyages transporting enslaved people. On the first of these voyages she suffered a high mortality, both among her captives and her captains and crew. A privateer captured her in 1795 as she was on her way to Jamaica with captives while on her third voyage transporting enslaved people.
Defiance was launched in Hamburg in 1790, probably under another name. She started sailing as a slave ship out of London in 1795. Between 1795 and 1800 she made three voyages in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She then left that trade but a French privateer captured her late in 1800.
Old Dick was launched at Bermuda in 1789. She sailed to England and was lengthened in 1792. From 1792 on she made two full voyages as a Liverpool-based slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. On her second she recaptured two British merchant ships. She was lost in 1796 at Jamaica after having landed her third cargo of captives.
Vulture was built in France 1777 and captured. By early 1779 she was sailing as a privateer out of Liverpool. She then became a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She made 10 voyages transporting enslaved people and was captured in 1795 on her 11th such voyage.
Thomas was the ship Sally that James Jones acquired in 1785. Thomas made seven voyages from Bristol as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved persons. On her fourth such voyage,Thomas and five other enslaving ships, bombarded Calabar for more than three hours to force the local native traders to lower the prices they were charging for captives. The French captured her in 1794 as she was on her way for her eighth voyage.
William Gregson was a British slave trader. He was responsible for at least 152 slave voyages, and his slave ships are recorded as having carried 58,201 Africans, of whom 9,148 died. Gregson was the co-owner of a ship called the Zong, whose crew perpetrated the Zong massacre.
Liverpool Hero was built in France in 1777, probably as Jeune Emilia. She was taken in prize in 1780. In 1781 she entered into the triangular trade in enslaved people. From 1781 she made six complete voyages from Liverpool as a slave ship. On her fourth enslaving voyage she suffered an exceptionally high mortality rate among the captives she had embarked. Her third voyage had been marred by high mortality, but on the fourth 330 captives, 59% of the number she had embarked, died. She was lost in 1794 off the coast of Africa on her seventh voyage, probably with her crew and captives.
Bell was launched in 1788 in Liverpool. Between 1788 and 1795 she made five voyages as a Liverpool-based slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. The French captured her in 1798 on her sixth enslaving voyage after she had embarked her captives. In 1798, the Royal Navy destroyed her.
Ranger was launched in Liverpool in 1789. She made four complete voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. A French privateer captured her in 1796 in a single ship action during her fifth voyage transporting enslaved people. She was recaptured, but thereafter disappears from online records.
Brothers was launched in the Thirteen Colonies in 1772, probably under another name. From 1785 she became a Bristol-based slave ship. She made six complete voyages in the triangular trade, in all embarking 1880 enslaved people. The French captured her in December 1794 as she was on the first leg of her seventh such voyage and before she had embarked any captives. The main source for this article provided detail on crew turnover and death rates for her first three voyages. The first voyage had a particularly heavy mortality rate among the crew. The main source also provided data for her fourth, fifth, and sixth voyages for mortality rates on the Middle Passage among the enslaved people that she was carrying.
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