And had been for thousands and thousands of years.
It was a worldwide phenomena.
From Australia's Quadrant Magazine:
The name HMS Pickle, a schooner with only five cannon, may not call forth patriots today, but it was a stirring sight on the night of June 5-6, 1829, when after a deadly exchange of cannon fire at close range, it captured the slaver Voladora off Cuba, with slaves bound for American plantations. The Voladora was larger and had a crew twice the size, but the Pickle under J.B.B. MacHardy closed, and after an action of eighty minutes (above) the Voladora, its mainmast shot away, sails repeatedly holed, and rigging trailing over the stern, surrendered. The British had lost four men, their opponents at least fourteen. Two hundred and twenty-three African men and ninety-seven African women who had been bought in Africa were freed. Thirty-two slaves had already died on the voyage. The British crew imprisoned the slavers in their own chains. The victory was celebrated in Britain, with memorable paintings depicting the plucky triumph of the smaller crew.
The Pickle was not alone. Five days after its victory, the navy’s smallest warship, the schooner HMS Monkey, under Lieutenant Joseph Sherer, captured the far larger Spanish brig Midas after an action of thirty-five minutes even though the Monkey had only one twelve-pounder cannon and a crew of twenty-six, while the Midas had four eighteen-pounders and four twelve-pounders, and a crew of over fifty. Midas had bought 562 slaves from Africa, but only 369 were still alive when it was captured. Earlier in 1829, the Monkey had already captured an American slaver and a Spanish one, the latter, again more heavily-gunned, carrying 206 slaves.
Why does this dramatic long-forgotten aspect of our history matter so much? Because, despite all the criticism seemingly endlessly repeated today, we British actually have many, many reasons to be proud of our history and of what ends we used our power to purpose. Notably so in our leading role in ending first the international slave trade and then slavery around the world. For over a century, Britain stood at the forefront of the push to end both, using much effort, losing many lives, spending much money, and exerting much diplomatic pressure to achieve these goals. Yet, you would not know it today from the narrative from campaigners and activists keen to denigrate Britain’s history and to destroy our sense of identity in and through it.
Stopping first the slave trade and then slavery in British colonies was but a prelude to vigorous action against them elsewhere. In 1807, when Britain was in a difficult war with France, two warships were still sent to African waters in order to begin the campaign against the slave trade.
Action increased after the Napoleonic wars ended in 1815 with victory at Waterloo. The next year, Admiral Lord Exmouth and a fleet of twenty-one British warships, with the support of a Dutch frigate squadron, demanded the end of holding Christians as slaves in Algiers. When no answer was returned, Exmouth opened fire and 40,000 roundshot and shells destroyed the Algerian ships and much of the city. More than a thousand slaves, mostly from Spain and Italy, were freed; and the message was driven home by the appearance there of British squadrons in 1819 and 1824, and off Tunis in 1824. The overwhelming firepower of the Royal Navy’s thirty-two-pounders at almost point-blank range destroyed the Ottoman-Egyptian fleet in Navarino Bay, helping Greece win independence from the Ottoman Turks, who thus lost their ability to acquire Greeks as slaves.
The most important active British anti-slavery naval force, however, in the first half of the nineteenth century, was that based in West Africa which freed slaves and took them to Freetown in Sierra Leone, a British colony founded for free black people. They could not be returned to their homes, as they would only be captured anew by fellow Africans and sold as slaves. Indeed, in 1862, Viscount Palmerston, the Prime Minister, observed:
Half the evil has been done by the time the slaves are captured in the American waters. The razzia [devastating raid] has been made in Africa, the village has been burnt, the old people and infants have been murdered, the young and the middle aged have been torn from their homes and sent to sea.
In 1834, another outgunned British ship, the HMS brigantine Buzzard, under Lieutenant Anthony William Milward, took on the well-armed and larger Spanish brig Formidable off West Africa after a chase of seven hours. In a “smart action” of forty-five minutes, the Buzzard had several injured and, as Milward reported, the “fore and maintop-mast stays were cut, running rigging and sails much damaged, flying jib-boom shot away, and bumpkin carried away in boarding”, but six of the slaver’s crew were killed. Seven hundred slaves were freed.....
....MUCH MORE
700 freed in one action.
When carbon markets were all the rage—we preferred tax-and-100% rebate, less opportunity for rent-seeking and graft but a tough sell to the powers-that-be who would profit from said rent-seeking and graft— when they were all the rage one of our pithy little analogies was:
"When Britain decided to end slavery,
Wilberforce didn't set up a cap-and-trade system"
—from our October 2007 post "Cap-and-Trade Market in Babies"
It was a bit surprising how many intelligent, educated people would ask: "Who's Wilberforce?"
