Why did such a vigorous antislavery movement appear in Britain when it did?
A. There are three reasons, I think. First, 1787 and ’88, when the movement started with such a bang, was a very exciting moment politically. It was midway between the American and French revolutions, and a lot of heady ideas about human rights were in the air. Second, England embodied a huge contradiction. With a vigorous free press, a thriving civil society, the rule of law, trial by jury, and an elected House of Commons, it was by any measure the most democratic place in Europe. Yet Britain had a lucrative overseas slave empire and its ships carried roughly half the slaves taken across the Atlantic. It was only a matter of time before that contradiction became too blatant to ignore. Finally, millions of young men in Britain feared becoming victims of a different kind of brutal, involuntary forced labor: naval impressment. The widespread resistance against this set the stage for the antislavery movement. Q. You speak of this as being a pioneer protest movement. How so? A. Today, when
