Slavery Abolition Act (1833)

Slavery Abolition Act (1833)

The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, before it was repealed in 1997 in pursuit of a rationalization of English statute law, provided for the abolition of slavery in most parts of the British Empire, save for areas administered by the East India Company (Slavery Abolition Act, Section LXIV). The act sought to safely remove of the wide-spread slavery in the tropical regions of the British Empire, and it did little to solve the problem of slavery in North America; however, Canada was made a free territory for African American slaves, which resulted in thousands of slaves finding freedom in Canada in the following decades (Henry). Only slaves under the age of six years of age were immediately freed. Other slaves were freed under a system of apprenticeship, which slowed the process of immediate abolition by several years. The last apprenticeships ended in 1840.

The Slavery Abolition Act failed as it did not provide for the slaves it freed whatsoever, while tending wholly to the needs of the slave owner; moreover, it hardly immediately freed any slaves at all in North America, focusing on parts of the British Empire where plantation slavery ran extremely rampantly. The decision to free slaves through apprenticeships slowed the process of freeing the slaves considerably. Also, the exception clause, preventing the abolition of slaves in areas administered by the East India Company, slowed the process of total abolition as well. The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 did not live up to the expectations of William Wilberforce, who, after a process of evangelical conversion, believed wholly in the abolition of slavery until his death, which was coincidentally one week after the passing of the act in the House of Commons.

The act indubitably led to the pursuit of abolition in other western nations. It set a legal and social precedent that other western nations were almost forced to follow. Moreover, the act inadvertently freed slaves in North America by making Canada a free territory for slaves, which freed thousands of slaves as a result. Some view that slavery could not have immediately ended without calamitous consequences (Jayasree). Others think that the Slavery Abolition Act was not fast enough. In any case, the act led to the further abolition of slavery all throughout the British Empire and the United Kingdom, which set a social precedent that led to the further abolition of slavery all throughout the world. It was a good step in the right direction.

The act provided for the direct payment to slave-owners for the freedom of their slaves (Slavery Abolition Act). The act took the concerns of the slave-owners before those who were directly affected by the act. The slaves should have been paid for the enmities committed upon them. This set a dangerous legal precedent until the act was repealed in 1997. It could have been much better executed, but the act led to more beneficial legislation that treated the freed slaves much, much better, and in much more areas, as well.

The Slavery Abolition Act is important in considering the Great Resignation because it exactly applies to the reasons marginalized peoples are leaving the workforce in mass exodus. Just as slaves were "freed" without having been compensated for their time in slavery, African Americans, women, and other minority groups often go through similar inequalities when applying/working in jobs. It serves as the perfect paradigm to the enmitites that have been committed upon minorities for centuries thus far.

Related Links

Slave Trade Act of 1807

Works Cited

3° & 4° Gulielmi IV, cap. LXXIII, Slavery Abolition Act 1833. https://www.pdavis.nl/Legis_07.htm. Accessed 30 April 2022.

Henry, Natasha L.. "Slavery Abolition Act". Encyclopedia Britannica, 25 Jul. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Slavery-Abolition-Act. Accessed 30 April 2022.

Jayasree C.H. “SLAVERY ABOLITION ACT (1843): AMBIVALENCES AND IMPLICATIONS (WITH REFERENCE TO MALABAR).” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 62, 2001, pp. 709–18, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44155818. Accessed 1 May 2022.

Henry Mayhew and London Labour and the London Poor

          Henry Mayhew was an essential part of the labor movement in London. His most famous work, London Labour and the London Poor, published in three volumes in 1851, was among the first few investigative journals to be published to the London public. Kira Braham, an English instructor at the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts, explains the significance of Mayhew’s investigative work in her article “The Victorian Gig Economy: Casualization in Henry Mayhew’s Morning Chronicle Letters”. She writes that “writings omitted from London Labour reveal a serious social investigator conducting the first empirical study of poverty in London [...] [There is] evidence of a politically radical Mayhew whose strident opposition to unregulated capitalism put him at odds with respectable London, including the very paper that had commissioned his work” (60). Mayhews work detailed information that the general population did not want to think about — the life of the poor. By going into extensive detail, the public was not able to just ignore the struggles that so many went through. “Out of sight, out of mind” was no longer an option once Mayhew’s work became more popular. Most upper and upper-middle class readers of Mayhew’s writings were uncomfortable with the message that London Labour and the London Poor was trying to send about the horrendous conditions of the working class. However, this was Mayhew’s intention. Anne Humpherys, an English and Women’s Studies professor, details in her academic article "Henry Mayhew (25 November 1812-25 July 1887)" that Mayhew’s intention was to make the public aware of the poor’s working and living conditions while giving first-hand accounts of what life in London was like for these people (18). Additionally, first-hand accounts showed more authenticity in his writing and made people more sympathetic to what the poor and working-class were going through at the time. 

          Mayhew’s writings followed those at the very bottom of the social, economic, and political hierarchy. He details his findings of interviewing those with the least pleasant jobs imaginable, such as crossing-sweepers, mud-larks, pure-finders, refuse-collectors, chimney-sweeps, and prostitutes. In one memorable interview, Mayhew interviews coal-heavers on the hardships associated with their jobs. One man expressed to Mayhew that “a coalwhipper’s life is one of debt and struggles—it is a round of relieving, paying, and credit. We very rarely have a halfpenny[242] in the pocket when we meet our credit” and that the “great evil is the uncertainty of the work. [The coal-heavers] have all to take our rotation. This uncertainty has this effect upon many of the men—they are compelled to live on credit” (241-242). The uncertainty of when these men will work and how much they will be able to make in that time was a tremendous stress on them and their families. Mayhew writes that “the wives and children of the coalbackers are generally in great distress” from the unreliable nature of the job (242). Most of these workers are the main providers for their families, and with the uncertainty surrounding the job, there is never a guarantee that the family will have something to eat or a roof over their heads. Mayhew’s writings in the London Labour and the London Poor were revolutionary for its time because of the strides it made in investigative journalism and it was a significant event in the history of working conditions and labor rights. Mayhew's writings relate to the Great Resignation because both of them were responses to the 99% and the widening class gap. Mayhew's interviewees did not always have the luxury to quit their jobs because of unfair treatment, as many in the Great Resignation movement were doing, but they both brought awareness to their cause. Mayhew's writings brought attention to the poor working conditions in London in 1851 just as the Great Resignation has brought attention to poor working conditions in America in 2020 and 2021.   

Sources:

Braham, Kira. “The Victorian Gig Economy: Casualization in Henry Mayhew’s Morning Chronicle Letters.” Nineteenth-Century Contexts, vol. 44, no. 1, Feb. 2022, pp. 57–74. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/10.1080/08905495.2021.2023344.

Humpherys, Anne. "Henry Mayhew (25 November 1812-25 July 1887)." Victorian Novelists After 1885, edited by Ira Bruce Nadel and William E. Fredeman, vol. 18, Gale, 1983, pp. 167-171. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 18. Gale Literature: Dictionary of Literary Biography, link-gale-com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/apps/doc/FDABXN675305072/DLBC?u=iulib_iupui&sid=bookmark-DLBC&xid=a25f42cc. Accessed 29 Apr. 2022.

Mayhew, Henry. London Labour and the London Poor. III, Dover Publications, 1968, Google Books, https://books.google.com/books?id=tVtHAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=one..., Accessed 27 Apr. 2022. 

Related Events:

The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands (Conflict in Ukraine: A History): https://editions.covecollective.org/chronologies/wonderful-adventures-mr...

This book details the story of Mary Seacole, a nurse during the time of the Crimean War. Seacole told a story that many people did not want to hear; she detailed her experience with racism, hardships, and war. Seacole's book related to Mayhew's because they both told the public things that they did not necessarily want to hear, but needed to. 

Literary Event: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (Will Smith at the Oscars: Why Stereotypes are the Root of the Problem): https://editions.covecollective.org/chronologies/literary-event-interest...

This book was written by a former slave. Equiano relates his story along the Transatlantic Slave Trade and his experience as a slave. Similarly to Seacole's narrative, Equiano's story also relates to Mayhew in the way that it educated the public on topics that they were not overly eager to understand. 

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

Author of The Jungle (1906), Upton Sinclair was a famous American writer and social revolutionary from California. Sinclair was a self-proclaimed socialist who focused on journalism and literary realism; as a journalist, Sinclair was known for his muckraking pieces meant to expose working conditions and the lives of the poor and working class in America. Arguably his most famous novel, The Jungle is a book that was written as a scandalous report exposing the meat packing industry in Chicago. While Sinclair wasn’t initially aiming to influence the Food and Drug Administration, his honest and at times revolting depictions of the industry and its sanitary conditions was one of the driving factors for the implementation of the Pure Food and Drug Act (Social Security History). Even though The Jungle drew attention towards industry in America, Sinclair also wrote about a variety of issues and covered international events. As stated by the Social Security Administration, Upton Sinclair was highly praised—specifically by Edmund Wilson—saying: “Practically alone among the American writers of his generation, Sinclair put to the American public the fundamental questions raised by capitalism in such a way that they could not escape them” (Social Security History).

The Jungle, written in 1906, was an exposé on the working conditions of the meat packing industry in the United States. While this book was set in Chicago, this story was applicable to every meat packing factory in the US as this was a standard due to lack of regulations and health department intervention. Sinclair’s descriptions and depictions of meat as diseased, rotten, and mixed in with animals and human appendages disturbed the public country-wide, influencing the government to enforce federal laws supporting health code standards and food safety expectations. While the novel took inspiration from Sinclair’s experiences in what was coined Packingtown in Chicago, The Jungle is still advertised as fiction as it reflects his views on the industry. Staying true to the nationalities of the workers in Packingtown, Sinclair based his main character off of Lithuanian immigrants and centered his story around his fictional character Jurgis Rudkis (“Muckraking the Meat-Packing Industry”).

Disillusioned with the working conditions in the United States, Rudkis was thrust into an industry that didn’t value its workers, didn’t regulate working conditions, and didn’t regulate living wages for fair hours; with these conditions, Rudkis recalls the hundreds of instances where workers would come to work with skin diseases, workers losing appendages on assembly lines, workers who were injured after carrying hundred pound carcasses, workers contaminating meat with tuberculosis, a lack of access to running water and the use of outhouses or lack thereof, and workers actively eating while on the assembly lines. An entire chapter was dedicated to the processing of meat despite said meat being contaminated, diseased, mislabeled, and made to appear appetizing with chemicals and dyes. Sinclair included that meat sent for canning was often infested with sawdust, human waste, rat feces, rat poison, and dead rats on more than one occasion. Sinclair accurately depicted the fate of many of these industry workers, using Rudkis to demonstrate how those in the working class suffered in a system such as this (“Muckraking the Meat-Packing Industry”).

Because of Sinclair’s publications of the story in The Appeal to Reason and later as a novel, there was a public outcry and the information within the novel spread like wildfire. The Jungle became an international bestseller; despite its popular status, many who read the novel ignored the suffering of the working class and instead focused on the conditions of the meat packing industry. Sinclair himself proclaimed, “I aimed at the public’s heart and by accident I hit the stomach” (“Muckraking the Meat-Packing Industry”). These same avoidances of working-class conditions are prevalent today as lower-class Americans are largely ignored and other issues are prioritized. Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle as a social commentary and tried to advertise his work as a firsthand account of what many Americans had to suffer through in order to survive. While the concept of poor working conditions has evolved since 1906, much of it still remains relevant today. Instead of acknowledging dangerous conditions for workers, middle and upper-class Americans in 1906 were more concerned with the health hazards they were consuming from the meat packing industry; today’s middle and upper-class society chooses to ignore how difficult the pandemic has been on people and demonstrate an extreme disconnect to real-world issues such as the skyrocketing living expenses and stagnant minimum wage. Both The Jungle and the Great Resignation expose the hypocritical and selective awareness of the upper-class and how their tone-deaf attitudes about the capitalist society we live in isn’t sustainable for most of its participants.

Related Links:

https://editions.covecollective.org/chronologies/literary-event-grapes-wrath

Works Cited

“The Boycott on 'The Jungle'; Upton Sinclair's Book in Trouble in the Packing Centres.” The New York Times, The New York Times, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/05/18/101840262.html?....

“Bria 24 1 b Upton Sinclairs the Jungle: Muckraking the Meat-Packing Industry.” Constitutional Rights Foundation, Civics Renewal Network, https://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-24-1-b-upton-sincl....

“Upton Sinclair.” Social Security History, Social Security Administration, https://www.ssa.gov/history/sinclair.html.

Literary Event: The Grapes of Wrath

          John Steinbeck was born and raised in Salinas, California where many of his stories take place. One of his most famous novels, The Grapes of Wrath, is a story about a single family (the Joads) as they leave their depreciated home & land for hope of work and wages in the west. The Joad family flees the Dust Bowl, which desecrated the abused soil of the southern central plains of America. Over 440,000 Oklahoma residents, or “Okies”, as they are derogatorily called in the book and in real life at the time, fled the state in hopes of avoiding going bankrupt and starvation in their most frail family members – particularly the children and elderly. (History) As if the Dust Bowl wasn’t enough for the destitute migrant workers, the agricultural catastrophe came into effect just as the Great Depression was in full swing; The first instance of storms occurred in 1930. Steinbeck was an educated man, though he did not finish his degree from Stanford University. After taking several jobs including farmhand, store clerk, and working closely with migrant workers, Steinbeck took it upon himself to document the lives of those who were less heard: the lower class. As if following in Henry Mayhew’s footsteps, John Steinbeck began doing some investigative journalism with the migrant workers of Salinas during the 1930s. He adapted their language, customs, livelihoods, and spiritual & economic palls in much of his writings, including Cannery Row, The Pearl, and Of Mice and Men. However, one of the most influential pieces about the lower class that Steinbeck wrote was undoubtedly The Grapes of Wrath in 1939.

          In October of 1936, Steinbeck published 7 articles about his firsthand account of the working and living conditions of the migrant workers of Salinas, CA. (Steinbeck, The Harvest Gypsies) Many of his experiences with the migrant workers would influence The Grapes of Wrath, including the horrid conditions of the worker camps and the demoralization of the people that had moved their whole lives out of necessity, only to be faced with the greed and abuse of the larger farm owners. “The Migrants are needed, and they are hated.” (Steinbeck, 4) Steinbeck writes, “it has been the habit of the growers associations of the state to provide by importation, twice as much labor as was necessary, so that wages might remain low.” (Steinbeck, 7) Almost all of the points that Steinbeck makes in these articles is reaffirmed in the story of the Joads family in the Grapes of Wrath. In his efforts to bring compassion to these forgotten families, Steinbeck brought to light the truly horrifying lives of these poor, migrant workers and their families. When companies of families would arrive to work, they were typically controlled as much as the owners could do, including hiring deputies to police the worker camps, and de-stabilized any sort of congregation that the workers may have organized outside of their work. “if they are allowed to congregate, they will organize, and that is the one tiling the large ranches will not permit at any cost.” (16)

          Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath wound up being the top-selling novel of 1939 & was a huge influence on the author being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. In 1940 it won the Pulitzer Prize, as well as premiered the critically acclaimed film adaptation by John Ford. (Britannica) Despite its massive success, much of the plight of the migrant worker was forgotten just as easily as the migrants themselves. Once WWII broke out, many of the families like the Joads were able to leave their traditional agricultural work, and flocked to industrial labor. It wasn’t until decades later, in 1975, when state legislature was established under the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which allowed for collective bargaining for farmworkers in California. (Wollenberg, Intro)

 Related Links:

Mary Seacole & The Crimean War - Mary Seacole's autobiographical account of the Crimean War was a well sought after story for its time. Like Steinbeck, Seacole wanted to tell the real story of the historical event, and not just gloss over it with romantic, nostalgia colored glasses.

The Exclusion and Detention of Japenese Americans During WWII - This is not a direct 1-1 connection, but The Grapes of Wrath does have a theme of discrimation against those labelled "Okies". Farmers had to pack up and leave everything they had to try and feed their families, but once they got to California, they were treated like animals & taken advantage of at every chance. The reality was, the choice was work for 3 cents a day, or watch your children & grandparents starve.

Work Cited:

Bauer, Patricia. “The Grapes of Wrath”. Britannica. May 18, 2020. Retrieved from:  https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Grapes-of-Wrath

Charles Wollenberg, "Introduction," in The Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to The Grapes of Wrath, (Berkeley: Heyday Books), 1988.

History.com Editors. “Dust Bowl”. History. Aug 5, 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/dust-bowl

Lange, Dorothea. "Migrating Okies". Encyclopedia Britannica. April 29, 2022. Retrieved from: https://www.britannica.com/place/Dust-Bowl/images-videos#/media/1/174462...

Steinbeck, John. “The Harvest Gypsies”. San Francisco News. Oct 5-12, 1936. Retrieved from: https://missthedogatemyhomework.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/john-steinbeck-the-harvest-gypsies.pdf

Newsies — Labor Unions and Strike Protests

          Newsies premiered on Broadway in March of 2012. It was an adaptation of the Disney film also titled Newsies that came out in 1992. Both the film and the Broadway show showcase a group of young men who come together to create a union and strike against major newspaper companies. The entire story of Newsies is based on the American newspaper strike of 1899. The show was an astounding success and went on to be nominated for eight Tony awards that year. George Rodosthenous, an associate professor in theatre directing and Deputy Head of School at the School of Performance and Cultural Industries of the University of Leeds, explains the main premise of the story in his book The Disney Musical on Stage and Screen: Critical Approaches from "Snow White" to "Frozen". He writes that “impoverished orphan children selling newspapers in New York City went on strike when the price of the papers they were selling was raised by media moguls William Randolf Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer during the Spanish-American War. The boys sing, dance, and fight for organized labour, finally prevailing over the greed of their employers” (155). Newsies is a brilliant example of organized unions, strikes, and advocating for workers' rights. Based on real events, it flawlessly illustrates the struggle that the newsies, who mainly consisted of young, impoverished, and orphaned boys, faced with their wealthy employers. Susan Campbell Bartoletti illustrates the impact that the story has on viewers in her article "The Power of Work and Wages: Working Toward Historicity in Children's Fiction" by stating that Newsies leaves viewers, especially children and young adults (which is Newsies main projected audience) feeling empowered and ready to fight for themselves and their own self-respect (Bartoletti). Through the use of singing, dancing, and acting, the story gives viewers not only a passion for social justice but a critical history lesson about labor organizations that can still be applied to today's society. 

          The song “Once And For All” occurs near the end of the musical when the characters finally succeed in making a change in their employment. The song is one of the most revolutionary in the show as it showcases the conditions that newsies endured in 1899. The song, written by Jack Feldman and Alan Menkin, points out the wealth differences between the impoverished and the extremely wealthy as well as the relationship between them. They sing “See old man Pulitzer snug in his bed, he don't care if we're dead or alive. Three satin pillows are under his head, while we's begging for bread to survive” (Feldman and Menkin). The relationship between these two classes are so strained and the lyrics showcase the difference between them as well as the lack of empathy for the impoverished employees. Contrasting satin pillows to begging for bread creates a strong contrast between the newsies and Pulitzer and Hearst. The cast goes on to sing that “This is for kids shining shoes on the street with no shoes on their feet everyday. This is for guys sweating blood in the shops while their bosses and cops look away” (Feldman and Menkin). This set of lyrics works to show the audience the working conditions of the poor and lower working class. The mention of children shining shoes demonstrates how many families relied on income not only from spouses but also from the youngest members of their family. Furthermore, it displays how the employers and even policemen ignore the brutality of the work the lower class had to do just to survive. The song “Once And For All” is a perfect demonstration of labor unions and the fight to get rights in workplace environments. The performance that is linked was from the 2012 Tony awards; It showcases the original cast performing another song titled “Seize The Day” which gains support for the newsies’ cause and initiates a strike protest. The dancing, acting, and music from Newsies brings a unique perspective to the story from 1899 while also inspiring viewers to advocate for their own labor rights. The Great Resignation also works to inspire people to fight for their own rights; in 2020 and 2021, people are quitting their jobs, similar to the newsies, and demanding better wages and respect from their employers. Newsies and the Great Resignation inspire people to not settle for unfair treatment and to stand up for their own workplace rights in a way that is bound to make a large impact.

Sources:

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. "The Power of Work and Wages: Working Toward Historicity in Children's Fiction." Children's Literature Association Quarterly, vol. 24 no. 3, 1999, p. 112-118. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/chq.0.1101.

Erickson, Charles. Newsies on Broadway. New York City, 2014.

Feldman, Jack and Alan Menkin. Lyrics to “Once And For All”. Performed by Newsies Original Broadway Cast. Ghostlight Records, 2012. Genus, https://genius.com/Newsies-original-broadway-cast-once-and-for-all-lyrics.

“NEWSIES Broadway - 2012 Tony Awards.” YouTube, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntreRlCJMiI. 

Rodosthenous, George. The Disney Musical on Stage and Screen: Critical Approaches from "Snow White" to "Frozen". Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2017, Google Books, https://books.google.com/books?id=R3gnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA165&lpg=PA165&dq=%22..., Accessed 29 Apr. 2022.

Related Events:

The Stonewall Riots, The Stonewall Uprising, The Stonewall Rebellion, or Simply, Stonewall (A Repression of Language and Assaults on Human Rights for LGBTQIA+): https://editions.covecollective.org/chronologies/stonewall-riots-stonewa...

The Stonewall riots took place in New York City. It included protests, marches, and demonstrations to show support of LGBTQ members and the community as a whole. The Stonewall uprisings relate to Newsies by being a show of resilience and unity. Although the circumstances surrounding each event was different, they are similar in both of their demonstrations of power and passion for their respective causes. 

The Black Panthers (Will Smith at the Oscars: Why Stereotypes are the Root of the Problem): https://editions.covecollective.org/chronologies/black-panthers

The Black Panther party was a group organized to protect against police brutality and keep black citizens safe. The group was seen as radical by many people. However, the party was passionate and worked to uplift and inspire black communities. Both the Black Panther party and the characters from Newsies were willing to do whatever it took to change their enviroment and improve the lives of their communities and social groups.