The British Abolition Campaign: Petitions and Boycotts

In May 1787 twelve men, nine of them Quakers, founded the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade in London. Thomas Clarkson gathered evidence from sailors and ships, Granville Sharp provided legal expertise, and William Wilberforce led the cause in Parliament. The campaign pioneered methods still used by activists. Josiah Wedgwood produced a medallion showing a kneeling enslaved man with the words 'Am I not a man and a brother?

'; a diagram of the slave ship Brookes showed how people were packed into its hold; and hundreds of petitions flooded Parliament, with 519 arriving in 1792 alone. Many families boycotted slave-grown sugar, a protest in which women played a leading role. Opponents argued that the trade was vital to the economy and the navy, and Parliament repeatedly rejected abolition bills in the 1790s. The campaign shows how organized public opinion could gradually reshape what politicians considered possible.