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The Anti-slavery Arch and Black History under construction Updated 19 July 2010
The Anti-slavery Movement in the Stroud District 1825 Quaker Anthony Fewster was the leading member of the Friends' Committee of Sufferings, a group which collected £75 on behalf of the Anti-slavery Movement. Around this time, Stroud became a Parliamentary borough. Those with the new right to vote began to make known their feelings about slavery and other issues. 1826 Colonel Robert Kingscote and Colonel William Fitzharding Berkeley were dissuaded, by Lords Ducie and Sherbourne, from their intention to call a county meeting designed to set up a Parliamentary petition: 'If we have not a great many respectable names, we shall only be laughed at, and do no good.' Clearly the signatures of local shopkeepers and also of mill owners were not deemed to be as important as those of the gentry, and so they would have to fight their campaign without the support they sought. 1832, June Reform Bill. Stroud was created as an electoral division with the right to send one MP to Parliament. 16 July A Stroud Anti-slavery meeting, chaired by John Partridge, took place at Ebley Chapel. Eleven leading campaigners put their names as proposers, seconders and supporters to five resolutions that were adopted and printed in Gloucester Journal. The meeting's attendance included a number of well-known local religious figures: Benjamin Parsons, minister of Ebley Chapel, joined Quakers Anthony Fewster, cheesemaker Samuel Bowly and millowner John Figgins Marling. 9 August Gloucester Journal's report about a meeting at the Bell Inn, Painswick, stated: 'Strong resolutions were unanimously carried, expressive of the incompatibility of negro slavery with the spirit of Christianity, the genius of the Constitution, and the happiness of man..' 11 August Before the election, anti-slavery leaders* in Nailsworth urged the election of anti-slavery candidates. (* Four local ministers and five prominent laymen. The group included Nailsworth Mill cloth manufacturer William Barnard; Bowbridge dyer Joseph Partridge; Nailsworth builder Anthony Fewster.) 28 July A letter addressed to 'CW Codrington', supposedly by 'Tony Lumpkin' of Stroud , appeared in Gloucester Journal. His appeared to be a lone voice of support for slavery when he commented: 'I am sorry to say that I can't do much for you in this radical District - people here declare that Slavery ought not to exist.' 5 and 7 November A meeting was held by pro-slavery representatives, newly arrived in the Stroud area, in Birt's room, the public room of the White Hart. Two orations in favour of slavery in Stroudwater were given by Peter Borthwick whom Paul Hawkins Fisher described as 'a paid advocate of negro slavery, hired by the West India planters to give lectures on their side of the question'. Anti-slavery pamphlets were written soon afterwards to answer the pro-slavery points that Borthwick raised, Samuel Bowly and Rev Benjamin Parsons being particularly active participants in these activities. December The General Election campaign hustings were established before an unfinished structure adjacent to the George Inn. Although many took the anti-slavery stance, there were others such as Painswick's W H Hyett, David Ricardo and Paulett Scrope who were fearful of a destructive outcome if slavery was abolished immediately and without safeguard conditions. Responses from opposers such as Anthony Fewster and JG Ball were distinctly long-winded. 10 and 11 December The district election took place a week after nominations. Hyett received 985 votes; Rocardo 585 votes; Scrope 562 votes. 18 and 19 December In the East Gloucestershire election, Whigs Guise and Moreton were elected. 1833 As the Emancipation Bill was being drafted, new MP Hyett received a petition containing the names of mainly Stroud Non-conformist tradesmen and manufacturers urging him to support and promote full abolition with no compensation. 1834 The Emancipation Act appeared and included the compensation of slave owners to the value of £20,000,000. With the passing of the Act, Henry Wyatt, new owner of Farm Hill, decided to mark its historical importance by creating a triumphal arch at the start of his estate's main driveway: 'Erected to commemorate the abolition of slavery in the British Colonies the first of August AD MDCCCXXXIV'. 1833 It was decided that public meeting rooms should be created, and so the Stroud Subscription Rooms were established with the help of monies raised by public subscription. More to come! Useful Links Please note that these are some of many, and most of the websites have website links of their own. If you think that I have missed a vital source from this initial list, please email me.
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