rajni_bhan

· 30 Dec 2021

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Why Abolish Slavery?

Slavery was abolished (put to an end) at a critical juncture in world history. Plantations spanned the continents in 1800. It hired enslaved Africans to work on these. In the year 1803, slavery and the slave trade were illegal. Denmark outlawed the Atlantic slave trade this year. Slavery prohibits in the United States and the United Kingdom in 1807-1808. Bringing enslaved persons into their realm was therefore forbidden. Slavery, on the other hand, was still lawful. Persons kept enslaved. Slavery passed down through their families. Slavery was annulled for the first time in the Americas in 1804 when Haiti became an independent country. In the year 1823, Cuba abolished slavery. It came to an end in 1829 when Mexico declared independence. After the Civil War finished in 1865, the United States did not abolish slavery.

Why did abolishing slavery appear out of nowhere in the nineteenth century? What made huge slave-owning societies turn abolitionists? It should consider at least three significant theories.

The First Theory Is That There Is No Such Thing As Free Work Or Free Wages:

A rapid turn toward abolitionism took place in the United Kingdom. It had the largest slave trade enterprise in the world in the 1790s. However, it was the first significant country to outlaw the slave trade in 1807. It abolished slavery later in other English-speaking places, such as the northern United States. What went wrong in these areas? It could have been for economic reasons, according to one explanation. A new middle class of entrepreneurs was forming.

They were able to pay their employees. Slavery, they thought, was infringing on their business. These entrepreneurs wished to do business in Africa as well. They wanted to purchase African resources and offer finished goods to African customers. In Africa, the slave trade caused unrest. They thought that the cessation of the slave trade would bring more stability and prosperity to Africa’s economy.

Morality Is The Second Hypothesis:
Slavery abolishes ethical reasons, according to some. Enlightenment thinking may have influenced how people thought throughout the abolitionist movement. Individual liberty was a goal of the Enlightenment. “Free work” was included. As a result, people were paid for their labour rather than enslaved. Humanity was also a topic of discussion among Enlightenment intellectuals.

Furthermore, It frequently used the Bible to justify slavery. People revisited Biblical texts because of the Enlightenment. Evangelical Christians dominated the abolitionist movement. “Goodwill toward all mankind,” they said, citing the gospel. Slavery, they contended, was incompatible with Christianity’s spirit.

According To Theory Three, The Acts Of Africans In The Americas And Europe:
Another abolitionist argument is that black Americans and Europeans were responsible for abolition. It claims that their deeds were what brought slavery to an end. Black abolitionists in the United Kingdom were among the most effective. Olaudah Equiano is one example. He was a formerly enslaved guy who argued against slavery by quoting the Bible. Ottobah Cugoano, a free African, also played a significant role and, in his memoirs, advocated for the end of slavery.
People of African heritage also led abolitionism in Mexico throughout the 1820s. In 1829, nearly all of Mexico was declared abolitionist. Vicente Guerrero, a partly African-American president, announced this.

Conclusion:
By the twentieth century, most of the world had abolished slavery. It isn't to say that abolished that slavery completely. (In certain incarnations, it still exists.) Slavery continued to exist in some areas where it was not legal. Other places still forced freed individuals to live in slavery-like conditions—people in South Asia work in arduous conditions with few advancement opportunities. Formerly enslaved people in the US were subject to racist legislation. I hope you understand all three theories of why abolish slavery.