Abolizionismo 1.2
Die Abolitionsbewegungen der Neuzeit entstammten meist dem anglo-amerikanischen politischen Protestantismus (Quäker, Mennoniten) und verfügen dort auch über eine ungebrochene Traditionslinie, während ihre kontinentaleuropäischen Gegenstücke und Ableger sich stärker aus den Quellen des Liberalismus und Sozialismus speisten, ohne allerdings in der Regel einen vergleichbaren Einfluss gewinnen zu können.
Significance of the Abolition of Slavery
Artikel 4 der Allgemeinen Erklärung der Menschenrechte lautet: "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms."
In der ersten Etappe (1787-1807) konzentrierte sich der Kampf gegen die Sklaverei auf den transatlantischen Menschenhandel, danach auf die Abschaffung der Sklaverei in den USA und überall sonst auf der Welt. Nachdem die USA die Sklaverei abgeschafft hatten (1865), folgte 1888 als letztes Land Brasilien.
Two hundred years ago, three-quarters of the world's population were in bondage of one kind or another. Eighty thousand slaves were trafficked every year from Africa to the New World. Ship owners, slave traders, sugar exporters, chocolate makers and plantation owners were earning fortunes. Only one MP, William Wilberforce, was active in the abolitionists' cause. Yet with organisation, enthusiasm and imaginative campaigning, the abolitionists eventually forced parliament to hear the cries of the suffering slaves and bend to the will of the British people. "It was the first time in history," writes Hochschild, "that a large number of people became outraged, and stayed outraged for many years over someone else's rights." Robin White (2005) on Adam Hochschild’s “Bury the Chains”
Die Abolition erfolgte nicht aus wirtschaftlichen, sondern aus politischen und moralischen Gründen. Anders als die Marxisten dachten, steht der Kapitalismus keineswegs in einem grundlegenden Gegensatz zur Sklaverei. Vielmehr zeigt die Geschichte des transatlantischen Sklavenhandels, wohin die Reise gehen kann, wenn Marktkräften freier Lauf gelassen wird.
Abolishing the transatlantic slave trade
Protagonisti
The first anti-slavery statement was written by Dutch and German Quakers, who met at Germantown, Pennsylvania in 1688. English Quakers began to express their official disapproval of the slave trade in 1727 and promote reforms. From the 1750s, a number of Quakers in Britain's American colonies also began to oppose slavery, and called on English Quakers to take action with parliament. They encouraged their fellow citizens, including Quaker slave owners, to improve conditions for slaves, educate their slaves in Christianity, reading and writing, and gradually emancipate them.
An informal group of six Quakers pioneered the British abolitionist movement in 1783 when the London Society of Friends' yearly meeting presented its petition against the slave trade to Parliament, signed by over 300 Quakers. They were also influenced by publicity that year about the Zong massacre, as the ship owners were litigating a claim for insurance against losses due to more than 132 slaves having been killed on their ship.
The Quakers decided to form a small, committed, non-denominational group so as to gain greater Anglican and Parliamentary support. The new, non-denominational committee formed in 1787 had nine Quaker members and three Anglicans. As Quakers were considered non-conformists and were debarred from standing for Parliament), having Anglican members strengthened the committee's likelihood of influencing Parliament.
Von entscheidender Bedeutung war die in England von Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp u.a. gegründete Society for Effecting the Abolition of Slavery (Gesellschaft zur Abschaffung der Sklaverei; vgl. Hochschild 2005)).
William Wilberforce
Resultati
Der Slave Trade Act vom 25.03.1807 untersagte britischen Bürgern und Schiffen jeden Handel mit Sklaven und motivierte die britische Regierung zu einer heftigen Kampagne gegen jene Staaten, die weiterhin vom Transatlantik-Handel mit Afrikanern profitierten. Über den Verzicht aller anderen Staaten auf den Sklavenhandel hinaus verlangte Großbritannien das Recht, alle verdächtigen Schiffe zu untersuchen und die entdeckten Sklaventransporter zu beschlagnahmen. Während sich die USA, Dänemark, Schweden und Holland der Lage anpassten, wehrten sich Spanien, Portugal, Brasilien und Frankreich noch bis zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Durch Geld wurden bis 1853 Portugal (über 3 Mio. Pfund) und Spanien (über 1 Mio. Pfund), durch robuste Drohungen (1852) die brasilianischen Sklavenhändler auf Linie gebracht. Frankreich hingegen, das sich 1815 pro forma zum Verbot der Sklavenschiffe bekannt hatte, führte selbst kaum Kontrollen durch und verweigerte vor allem auch aus Nationalstolz jede britische Kontrolle und profitierte auf diese Weise bis 1848 von einem ausgedehnten illegalen transatlantischen Sklavenhandel.
Cronologia
- 1772: In Inghilterra, fin dal 1772 il giudice britannico Granville Sharp stabilisce il criterio che qualunque schiavo fuggito dalla colonie riesca a calcare il suolo inglese diverrà automaticamente un uomo libero.
- 1767 Society for Effecting the Abolition of Slavery. Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp et al.
- 1783: Nel 1783 i quaccheri inglesi iniciano la battaglia contre la schiavitù in Inghilterra.
- In June 1783, Friends became aware that a Bill relating to the slave trade was before the House of Commons. Friends were at their annual gathering in London, and seizing this opportunity, on June 17 1783 London Yearly Meeting presented to Parliament the first petition against the slave trade signed by 273 Quakers. Three days later, Meeting for Sufferings set up a 23-member committee - the Committee on the Slave Trade to 'embrace all opportunities to promote the intention of the Yearly Meeting respecting the slave trade' and 'to obtain and publish "such information as may tend to the abolition of the slave trade'. This committee was Britain's first anti-slavery organisation. A few weeks later in July 1783 six Friends met informally as a separate group to enlighten the public mind on the slave trade. They did this by sending anti-slavery articles to the newspapers, and lobbying Members of Parliament and other notables. These Quaker abolitionists were ordinary people, who recognised that the trade was a violation of their fundamental belief in the equality of all human beings - and decided to do something about it. They included a physician, chemist, tinplate worker, printer, conveyancer, linen-bleacher, weaver, woollen draper, maltser, cutler, and surgeon.
- 1787: Fondazione della prima associazione per la liberazione degli schiavi.
Nel 1787 viene fondata la Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade ("Società per l'abolizione della tratta"), un movimento abolizionista organizzato voluto, tra gli altri, dal deputato William Wilberforce e dall'attivista Thomas Clarkson, con il sostegno del primo ministro William Pitt.
The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, (or The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade), was a British abolitionist group, formed on 22 May 1787, by twelve men who gathered together at a printing shop in London, England.
The Society worked to educate the public about the abuses of the slave trade; it achieved abolition of the international slave trade in 1807, enforced by the British Navy.
The United States also prohibited the African slave trade that year, to take effect in 1808.
It later was superseded by development of the Anti-Slavery Society in 1823, which worked to abolish the institution of slavery throughout the British colonies. Abolition was passed by parliament in 1833 (except in India, where it was part of the indigenous culture); with emancipation completed by 1838. The ASS continued to work for abolition of slavery in the United States and other nations.
- 1807 Slave Trade Act . Abolishes Slave Trade in British Empire. Slavery Remains Legal in British Empire. US, DK, S, NL consent.
La Camera dei Comuni nel 1807 delibera il divieto di attracco nelle navi negriere nei porti inglesi e nel 1815 sarà la marina britannica, su mandato del Congresso di Vienna a fare applicare il divieto internazionale della tratta degli schiavi.
- 1833: Nel 1833 il Parlamento inglese decreta la liberazione degli schiavi nelle colonie.
Slavery Abolition Act. Slavery becomes illegal in British Empire.
- 1848 F follows forbidding slave trade (little implementation)
- 1852 Brazil follows ... after robust threats
- 1853 Spain and Portual follow after large compensations.