Subject to Others: British Women Writers and Colonial Slavery, 1670-1834

395 Pages·1992·11.54 MB·English

by  Moira Ferguson

SUBJECT TO OTHERS
British Women Writers and
C o I o n i a I SI a v e r y, 1670-1834
MOIRA FERGUSON
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ROUTLEDGE
NEW YORK LONDON
Published in 1992 by
Routledge
An imprint of Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc.
29 West 35th Street
New York, NY 10001
Published in Great Britain by
Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane
London EC4P 4EE
Copyright © 1992 by Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America on acid free paper.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
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now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
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i
Ferguson, Moira.
1
l Subject to others : British women writers and colonial slavery,
1670-18341 Moira Ferguson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-415-90475-7. ISBN 0-415-90476-5 (pbk.)
1. English literature—Women authors—History and criticism.
2. Slavery—Great Britain—Colonies—Anti-slavery movements.
3. Feminism and literature—Great Britain—History. 4. Women and
literature—Great Britain—History. 5. Slavery and slaves in
literature. 6. Colonies in literature. 7. Blacks in literature.
1. Title.
PR408.S57F47 1992
820.9'9287—dc20 92-14984
CIP
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data also available
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For Kraz
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Slaves speak “through and by virtue of the European imagination.”
Edward W. Said , Orientalism
The Slave’s Address
Natives of a Land of Glory,
Daughters of the good and brave!
Hear the injured Negro’s story;—
Hear and help the kneeling Slave.
Think how nought but death can sever
Your lov’d children from your hold;—
Still alive—but lost for ever—
Ours are parted, bought, and sold!
Seize, oh! seize the favouring season—
Scorning censure or applause:
JUSTICE TRUTH, RELIGION, REASON,
Are your LEADERS in the cause!
Follow!—faithful, firm, confiding;—
Spread our wrongs from shore to
shore;
Mercy’s God your efforts guiding,
Slavery shall be known no more.
Susanna Watts
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Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Phase One
Chapter 1. Colonial Slavery and Protest: Text and Context 3
Chapter 2. Oroonoko: Birth of a Paradigm 27
Chapter 3. Seventeenth-Century Quaker Women: 51
Displacement, Colonialism, Anti-Slavery
Chapter 4. Inkle and Yarico: an Anti-Slavery Reading 69
Chapter 5. Sentiment and Amelioration 91
Chapter 6. Emerging Resistance 113
Phase Two
Chapter 7. The Parliamentary Campaign: New Debates 145
Chapter 8. The Radical Impulse: Before the French 165
Revolution
Chapter 9. The Radical Impulse: After the 185
French Revolution
Chapter 10. Reactions to San Domingo (1): 209
Cheap Repository Tracts
Chapter 11. Reactions to San Domingo (2): 229
Sentiment, Suicide, and Patriotism
Chapter 12. Women in the Provinces and Across the Irish Sea: 249
Explosion of Agitation
Chapter 13. Extending Discourse and Changing Definitions 273
ix
x Contents
Chapter 14. Conclusion 299
309
Notes
Selected Bibliography 383
Index 447
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Acknowledgments
Research into the origins of feminist ideas in English would be
incomplete without the responses of British women writers to slavery.
The 1788 poem, “On the Inhumanity of the Slave Trade,” by the British
milkwoman-poet Ann Yearsley is a case in point. I began this study
with a one-month fellowship at the Huntington Library, groping slowly
through the complex debate among past and present historians over
the movements for abolition and emancipation. I thank the Huntington
Library staff for their friendliness and expertise in facilitating my
journey.
I would also like to thank the staff of the British Library where staff
members were consistently helpful. I thank Peter Hogg and David
Paisey of the British Library for several valuable conversations. I am
also much indebted to the following libraries, and to the curators and
librarians who generously answered my queries and opened up their
collections to me: the Friends Library, Euston Road, London, most
especially curator Malcolm Thomas, who made insightful suggestions
and supplied me with invaluable reproductions of materials; Jill She-
frin, Librarian, the Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books, To- *
ronto Public Library who pointed me in new directions and supplied
useful information; Albert W. Fowler of the Friends Historical Library,
Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania; the curators of the Friends Na­
tional Library, Eustace Street, Dublin, and Haverford College Library,
Pennsylvania, who answered questions about Friend Mary Birkett;
Melanie Wisner of the Houghton Library, Harvard University; Laetitia
Yeandle of the Folger Shakespeare Library; Miss J. V. Dansie, Local
Studies Librarian, Libraries, Essex County Council; Special Collections
at the Bristol Public Library; the Hunterian Library, University of
Glasgow; and the Rare Books Room, University of Edinburgh.
xi
xii Acknowledgments
My research on the African-Caribbean writer, Mary Prince, was
particularly aided by the late Helen Rowe, archivist of the Bermudian
Archives, Hamilton, Bermuda, and assistant archivist Sandra Bouja. I
also thank Bridget Harris, Archivist, and Desmond V. Nicholson, Direc­
tor, Museum of Antigua and Barbuda, St. Johns, Antigua. I thank, too,
Nancy Cardwell who helped me track down information about Mary
Prince’s early life and owners, and Natalie Porter who negotiated
access to this information. I am also indebted to the following: June
Tomlinson, senior library assistant at the Institute of Advanced Legal
Studies, London, who painstakingly ferreted out references to the
court cases in which Mary Prince was involved; Dulcie Mapondera
who led me to this avenue of pursuit; Anne Enscott, senior librarian,
Mitchell Library, North Road, Glasgow, who capably assisted me; Miss
G. A. Matheson, Keeper of the Manuscripts and the staff of the John
Rylands University Library of Manchester; and Angela Whitelegge,
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senior assistant librarian, Goldsmiths’ Library, University of London,
Senate House.
I have several friends and colleagues to thank warmly for many
forms of assistance that included answering queries and providing
information and insights: Sergio Aiolfi, Carol Barash, Stephen Beh­
rendt, Maureen Bell, Robert Bergstrom, Thomas Bestul, Jacqueline
Bratton, Philippa Brewster, Louis Crompton, Leonore Davidoff, Debo­
rah Dickinson, David V. Erdman, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Barbara Han­
rahan, Ned Hedges, Maureen Honey, Cora Kaplan, Greg Kuzma, Lem­
uel Johnson, Candida Lacey, Donna Landry, Edith Larsen, Jennifer
Lehmann, Gerda Lerner, Frederick Link, Joanna Lipking, Gerald Ma­
clean, Jay McPherson, Elizabeth Meese, Claire Midgeley, Charles Mi­
gnon, Mitzi Myers, Richard Ohmann, Marshall Olds, Ruth Perry, Ellen
Pollack, Ann Schteir, Jan Sellers, Robert Stock, Amy Swerdlow, Vron
Ware, and Judith Zinsser. 1 also thank members of the London History
Workshop for an enthusiastic exchange in the summer of 1988 and
Anna Davin for arranging that meeting. 1 owe an especial debt of thanks
to Ziggi Alexander who offered valuable advice and information, Peter
Fryer who furnished me with significant sources and graciously ex­
changed ideas, Isobel Grundy who supplied me with materials and
good leads, Catherine Hall who generously shared her ideas, and Ron
Ramdin for informative conversations.
Several friends and colleagues read early sections and drafts of
chapters and provided me with helpful comments: Ziggi Alexander,
Bettina Aptheker, Bruce Erlich, James Fultz, Oyekan Owomoyela,
Linda Ray Pratt, and Martha Vicinus. For valuable readings of individ­
ual chapters in the final draft, 1 am grateful to Katherine Blake, Elaine