World Anti-Slavery Convention Facts & Worksheets

Between 12-23 June 1840, the World Anti-Slavery Convention held its inaugural meeting at Exeter Hall in London. The English Quaker Joseph Sturge mainly inspired the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society to organize it. The absence of women from the conference significantly powered the American women’s suffrage movement.

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Key Facts & Information

SHORT BACKGROUND

• In 1787, nine Quakers and three Anglicans, including Thomas Clarkson, created the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade (previously known as the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade). With the advancement of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, their efforts led to the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade throughout the British Empire.
• The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, promoted by William Wilberforce, abolished slavery in the British Empire as of August 1834, when about 800,000 people in the British empire became free. The Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions and Society for the Mitigation, which existed from 1823 to 1838, contributed to the act’s passage.

SOCIETY FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE

• Abolitionists in Britain created the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade on May 22, 1787. It is also known as the Anti-Slavery Society. Twelve men founded the group, including well-known activists Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp, who, as Anglicans, had more significant clout in Parliament than the more numerous Quaker founding members.
• The group strove to raise awareness of the wrongdoings of the slave trade. After the British Parliament approved the Slave Trade Act in 1807, the organization terminated its operations, and the transatlantic slave trade was stopped.
• Similar to how many American women and men joined the abolitionist movement in the 1830s based on their moral anger and religious convictions, this initiative received a lot of responses, mostly from ladies.
• The American Anti-Slavery Society requested Lloyd Garrison to join. They participated actively, going to meetings and signing petitions. Arthur Tappan and other conservative society members were against women running for public office. During 1839, the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS) was established due to the perceived need for a group to advocate against slavery globally.
• The organization of the World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840 was one of the Society’s first notable acts; “Our expectations, we confess, were high, and the reality did not disappoint them.”
• The arrangement for this event started in 1839 when the Society disseminated an advertisement inviting delegates to attend the convention. Among the official representatives, more than 200 were British.
• With about 50 delegates, the Americans were the next largest group. There were only a few delegates from other countries. Slavery was a global issue, from India’s cotton fields to Brazil’s agendas.
• Even though they disagreed on how to do it, abolitionists agreed that slavery, in whatever shape it took, was a universal sin against humanity that could only be atoned for by universal emancipation. The conflict they entered in 1840 is still raging today. Historians Against Slavery aims to follow the BFASS’s lead in combining action and research. The BFASS still exists today as Anti-Slavery International.

THE QUESTION OF WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION

• The 1839 distribution of the circular message sparked an aggressive response from certain abolitionists in America. The Garrisonian movement encouraged women to get involved in the fight against slavery.
• The Arthur and Lewis Tappan backers were against them. A second circular was published in February 1840, indicating that the conference was only open to “gentlemen” when the latter group complained to the BFASS about the inclusion of women.
• Many American and British female activists, including Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lady Byron, attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London despite the announcement that they would not admit women.
• The Garrisonian group, the American Anti-Slavery Society, made a point of including Lucretia Mott and Charles Lenox Remond as members of their delegation. Women members served as the delegates for the Massachusetts and Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Societies, respectively.
• Cady Stanton, who was traveling with her husband Henry Brewster Stanton, a representative, on his honeymoon in England, was not a delegate herself.
• It should be noted that he supported the American group hostile to women’s equality.

PROCEEDINGS

• The convention’s planning committee requested the Reverend Benjamin Godwin to provide a paper on the morality of slavery. His article, which criticized not just slavery but also all world religious figures and every community that had refused to denounce the institution, was unanimously accepted by the assembly.
• The convention decided to express this viewpoint in writing to all religious leaders. The tradition demanded that any pro-slavery individuals be expelled from all religious communities.
• James Whitehorn and George William Alexander traveled to Sweden and the Netherlands in 1839 to discuss the plight of enslaved people in Suriname and the Dutch possessions.
• George William Alexander wrote about their travels in a report. He stated that there were approximately 100,000 enslaved people in Suriname, with a 20% annual attrition rate. 
• The convention wrote open letters of protest and sent them to the relevant sovereigns. Joseph Pease charged that the British government was compromised in continuing slavery in India.

LEGACY

• The convention’s planning committee requested the Reverend Benjamin Godwin to provide a paper on the morality of slavery. His article, which criticized not just slavery but also all world religious figures and every community that had refused to denounce the institution, was unanimously accepted by the assembly.
• The convention decided to express this viewpoint in writing to all religious leaders. The tradition demanded that any pro-slavery individuals be expelled from all religious communities.
• James Whitehorn and George William Alexander traveled to Sweden and the Netherlands in 1839 to discuss the plight of enslaved people in Suriname and the Dutch possessions.
• George William Alexander wrote about their travels in a report. He stated that there were approximately 100,000 enslaved people in Suriname, with a 20% annual attrition rate. 
• The convention wrote open letters of protest and sent them to the relevant sovereigns. Joseph Pease charged that the British government was compromised in continuing slavery in India.
• Beginning in the 1830s, women’s rights advocates in the United States fought for women’s freedom to express themselves on moral and political matters. In the same period, legal reformers in Stanton’s native New York discussed equality and contested state laws that forbade married women from holding property. Equal rights for women had become a contentious topic by 1848.
• They held the Seneca Falls Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, eight years later. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton said, “walked home arm in arm, commenting on the incidents of the day, [and] we resolved to hold a convention as soon as we returned home, and form a society to advocate for the rights of women” after leaving the convention on the first day and being denied full access to the proceedings.
• The Seneca Falls Convention’s manifesto, the Declaration of Sentiments, laid out the complaints and demands of women. Its primary author, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, reduced the Seneca Falls Convention’s significance into one message: women must strive for their constitutionally granted right to equality as U.S. citizens.
• The Seneca Falls Convention participants used the Declaration of Sentiments between 1848 and 1862 to “hire agents, circulate tracts, petition the State and national Legislatures, and seek to persuade the clergy and the press to support us.”
• After 72 years of organized struggle, women of America finally gained the same voting rights as men when the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed in 1920. Constitution.
• The Women’s Centennial Congress happened in America a century later to commemorate the advancements made by women since they were not granted the right to speak at this meeting.

World Anti-Slavery Convention Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about the World Anti-Slavery Convention, along with ready-to-use worksheets across 22 in-depth pages. Between 12-13 June 1840, the World Anti-Slavery Convention held its inaugural meeting at Exeter Hall in London. The English Quaker Joseph Sturge mainly inspired the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society to organize it.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

1. World Anti-slavery Convention Facts
2. Truth Spotting
3. ‘Slavery’
4. Mark the Date
5. Is it Worth It?
6. Looking Back
7. One Step at a Time
8. What is Your Vision?
9. Magnify the Message
10. Modern Slavery
11. #NoToSlavery

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the World Anti-Slavery Convention?

The World Anti-Slavery Convention was a series of international meetings organized by the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS) and other abolitionist groups in the 19th century to unite and coordinate the efforts of anti-slavery campaigners around the world.

When and where was the first World Anti-Slavery Convention held?

The first World Anti-Slavery Convention was held in London, England in June 1840. It was organized by the BFASS and attended by delegates from around the world, including abolitionists from the United States, Great Britain, and other countries.

What were some of the key issues discussed at the World Anti-Slavery Convention?

The conventions discussed and debated various issues related to the abolition of slavery, such as strategies for ending the slave trade, the rights of enslaved people, and the role of women in the anti-slavery movement.

Who were some of the notable figures involved in the World Anti-Slavery Convention?

Some notable figures involved in the World Anti-Slavery Convention include Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, William Lloyd Garrison, and Lucretia Mott.

What was the outcome of the World Anti-Slavery Convention?

The World Anti-Slavery Convention helped to raise awareness and support for the abolition of slavery around the world, it also served as an important platform for the exchange of ideas and strategies among anti-slavery campaigners. It played a key role in the eventual abolition of slavery in many countries around the world, including the United States and Great Britain.

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