It’s crazy that the whole abolitionist movement stepped into high gear when James Riley and his crew were turned into slaves to Saharan traders after they were shipwrecked in Africa, and James - the last surviving member of his entire crew - wrote a memoir about his ordeals.
It had to happen to the white man, for the white man to empathize with other slaves at the time, to call for abolishment. Very… uh… us.
That seems a questionable assertion, though? Looking up James Riley, he wasn’t shipwrecked and captured until 1815, which is long after the abolition movement had kicked into high gear. By that time, Britain had already outlawed the slave trade entirely, and declared any man who set foot on British soil as free, and France would soon follow suit. American abolitionism had resulted in the Northern states having largely abolished slavery or put the legislation in action by this time, though border states had experienced backsliding with the rise of the cotton gin.
Not only that, but slave narratives by white folk were not, themselves, new - they had a long history dating back to the 16th century, due to the raiding of North African pirates.
oh fair enough, I thought Riley’s story was influential in turning the tide of the movement in Britain, but you’re right – it was influential only in the US when Lincoln read the book
It’s crazy that the whole abolitionist movement stepped into high gear when James Riley and his crew were turned into slaves to Saharan traders after they were shipwrecked in Africa, and James - the last surviving member of his entire crew - wrote a memoir about his ordeals.
It had to happen to the white man, for the white man to empathize with other slaves at the time, to call for abolishment. Very… uh… us.
That seems a questionable assertion, though? Looking up James Riley, he wasn’t shipwrecked and captured until 1815, which is long after the abolition movement had kicked into high gear. By that time, Britain had already outlawed the slave trade entirely, and declared any man who set foot on British soil as free, and France would soon follow suit. American abolitionism had resulted in the Northern states having largely abolished slavery or put the legislation in action by this time, though border states had experienced backsliding with the rise of the cotton gin.
Not only that, but slave narratives by white folk were not, themselves, new - they had a long history dating back to the 16th century, due to the raiding of North African pirates.
oh fair enough, I thought Riley’s story was influential in turning the tide of the movement in Britain, but you’re right – it was influential only in the US when Lincoln read the book