Parliament and the British Slave Trade 1600-1807

 

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History: Petitioning Parliament

Vested interests versus people power

In 1788, a flurry of petitions in favour of the abolition of the slave trade were received by Parliament.

However, the powerful federation of planters, merchants, manufacturers and ship owners - all central to the slave trade - put up a dogged rearguard action against abolition of the slave trade in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

To voice their opposition, these groups presented petitions to both Houses of Parliament. They were not alone in using this method as a means of trying to get their message across - those against the trade also organised petitions, something that was initially encouraged by Thomas Clarkson. One of the purposes of Thomas Clarkson's tours of Britain between 1788 and 1794 was to organise and encourage a new public petitioning campaign.

In petitioning Parliament both sides were using a means of communicating with Parliament that had a long history, but was now on a scale not seen before.

At a time when the right to vote was very restricted the petitioning movement gave many who were excluded from the electoral process an opportunity to communicate with Parliament, as these petitions show.