The Great Abolition Sham: The True Story of the End of the British Slave Trade
Sutton Publishing, 2005. 256 pp. GBP 11.00
It is estimated that in the 100 years between 1700 and 1810 some three million African were transported across the Atlantic by British Merchants. The Great Abolition Sham is an expose of the myths surrounding the abolition of the British slave trade. Jordan focuses on examining the role played by abolitionists and in particular that of William Wilberforce who has been accredited with leading the campaign but which Jordan insists is one of the myths.
Jordan traces the origins and development of the Anti-slavery movement and in doing so reveals the “false heroes and untruths” which have been part of the revisionist writings on the abolition. He does this by naming those involved such as William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson and examining their real contributions and level of effectiveness. In this way Jordan is able to expose the “emissions and discrepancies in the both literature and historical accounts of the process and event. For example even after the Abolition Act was passed in 1807 the transportation and use of slaves continue often with not only the explicit knowledge of the British Government but with their participation through the forced unpaid enlistment into military service.
Jordan also addresses the issue of why the abolitionist movement started in the first place and what was the impetus behind it and why at that particular time. He examines the two opposing arguments; that abolition was borne out of a moral sense that slavery was wrong and the economic imperative that slavery was no longer economically viable. The latter because slave uprisings in the Caribbean were becoming increasingly regular and the policing of the slaves was increasingly difficult and costly. The Anglican Church was another sector of British establishment whose position was not united in opposition to slavery. It too played a game “that was as devious as any engaged in by secular members of the establishment”.
He concludes that by 1814 there were over 200 local anti-slavery groups in Britain with the number rising to some 1,300 by at the “climax of emancipation fever” in 1832. However he writes that petitioning itself hardly contributed to the passing of the Act and that by 1831 the British government so emancipation as “inevitable” with the threat of violence spreading across the Caribbean Islands. The Act of 1833 was passed after the third reading and Slavery was to be replaced by a system of apprenticeship “the conditions of which were hardly generous”
Jordan presents a strong alternative account to the traditional one which tended to elevate the myth of Britain taking the moral high ground and which presented the anti-abolitionists especially Wilberforce as laudable moral guardians of the movement to end slavery. The book is informative and well researched and one that is much needed to provide a balanced account of what really took place.
Although Jordan includes a Note on Terminology, in particular the use of the word “Negro” which he uses occasionally, there is a section in the “The Three Concerned Trade” where he discusses the differences between Africans and AmerIndians, why one group was more easily enslaved than the other and their respective reactions to slavery. It is not quite clear why he feels it necessary to go into so much detail on this matter as it doesn’t really add to the focus of the book which is they “Abolition Sham”.
Nevertheless Jordan presents an account of the Abolition Movement and the factors leading to the Emancipation Act of 1833 which is credible and worthwhile contribution to the literature.
Reviewed by Sokari Ekine