An efficient humanitarianism: The British slave trade debates, 1791–1792

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The dominant interpretation of the British Parliamentary debates on the abolition of the slave trade is that of a melodramatic confrontation between economic self interest and Christian social ethics. But the argumentative strategies employed by the slave interest and the abolitionists were more complex than historians commonly recognize. By means of an “egoistic‐altruistic” merger, the slavers sought to link their interest with those of the British working class in order to portray abolition as a policy that would destroy the prosperity of the nation. The abolitionists, arguing that the trade was economically inefficient, endeavored to depict this “commerce” as irrational and contradictory to the desire for profit. In this manner, the abolitionists were able to undermine the slave trade's economic legitimacy.

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit: