| July 22 |  |
Editor says, what if slavery had been abolished in the British Empire before the American Revolution? In authoring this post we have set about the "disempowerment" misperception of victims of slavery, insisting rather than the slave revolts in the Caribbean demonstrate that these brave men and women actually vanquished slavery. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1762, on this day Robert Wedderburn was born in Jamaica, the son of a slave Rosanna. His father James Wedderburn was a respected member of Edinburgh society who made a very handsome fortune from the Jamaican slavery trade. Never acknowledged by his father, Robert is rarely spoken of in relation to the famous Scottish Wedderburn family.
The Axe Laid To The RootBorn a free man due to a concession his mother sought whilst pregnant, Robert was well educated in Jamaica. There he was also witness to the terrible atrocities that slavery inflicted and began to battle against the injustices of the slave trade. Later, in the Horrors of Slavery, Wedderburn would write "I thank my God, that through a long life of hardship and adversity, I have ever been free in both mind and body: and have always raised my voice on behalf of my enslaved countrymen".
Setting off for London in 1779, he hoped to establish a relationship with his father who he had previously only met once in his life. However, on his arrival in London, he was disowned by his father, who claimed that Robert was lying and simply trying to get hold of the family fortune.
"The earth cannot be justly the private property of individuals, because it was never manufactured by man; therefore whoever sold it, sold that which was not his own".Rejected, Robert found a new identity as a leading activist against slavery. Calling for slave uprisings in Britain and the Caribbean, the Home Secretary called him a "notorious firebrand" and he was put on the Government's secret list of thirty-three leading reformers.
Wedderburn's revolutionary manifesto The Axe Laid to the Root would spur a widespread revolt across British North America that would terminate the slave trade throughout the Empire. And that event would precipiate a quite unexpected reaction, the secession of slave states from the British Colonies, into a new Confederate State of America.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© 100 Great Black BritonsStory Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Beasts Source: 100 Great Black Britons Labels: Robert Wedderburn, Slavery, North America, Jamaica, Great Britain. Editor says, the birth and dates of Robert Wedderburn are actually unknown. In this ATL, the American Revolution has not yet occured by 1779.
~ I'd dare say that the CSA doesn't stand a chance. Considering the North & Britain is against them, I'll be surprised if they last more than 2 years. 3 at tops. As a matter of interest, does the American Revolution ever take place or does Britain & the North forge closer ties as a result of fighting the Rebs?
~ Well I'd say that the CSA wouldn't last long in any rebellion - especially considering they'll be up against the North & Britain. So even though the North could be considered a much larger Canada, you'll need to look also to a conqured South as well. So will "Reconstruction" be a burden on the North & Britain or will it be easier on everyone considering "Reconstruction" will happen some 90 earlier than the OTL. I'd dare say it'll be easier & so the Empire will get into significant profit by the mid 1780s. If so, then this will make for a significant impact upon the Napoleonic Wars. If Britain has a lot more money, resource, & above all manpower, to throw at Napoleon, Bonny could well & truly find himself in deep -- not long after a major naval defeat akin to Trafalgar, as a large British Empire army, operating out of Hanover, could link up with the Prussians & march on Paris. So Napoleon could have his Waterloo in 1806...
~ Would this "Confederate State" be all that likely? Before the cotton gin set off the cotton boom in the post-Napoleonic American South, there was a lot of pro-(gradual)-abolition sentiment.
~ I'm afraid I don't see how "a widespread revolt across British North America" would "terminate slavery throughout the Empire." I'm assuming a slave revolt is meant. But in our history, the abortive Nat Turner rising of the 1830s did not end slavery, but rather induced slaveholding states to institute new repressive measures aimed not only at slaves but at anyone advocating the abolition of slavery. A, earlier, larger rebellion would still have been unlikely to succeed, and in failing would provoke a panicked South into even greater repression (though it might have led to an earlier end to the African slave trade, which Southerners allowed to end in 1808 in part to end the continuing infusion of "wild" Africans into what they considered a tamed, though not tame, American-born black population).
Comment from Jamie Driscoll on Facebook: John Brown's Raid at Harper's Ferry in 1859 wouldn't have taken place to name one of a thousand immediate changes.
Comment from Steve Shaper on Facebook: We could have avoided a major civil war, as well as Dred Scott and the threat of civil war in the 1820s. We could have avoided Jim Crow and the former action arm of the Dem. Party; the KKK. (now its ACORN).
Comment from Robby Cooke on Facebook: the changes to history would be endless. We couldn't even name all of them.
Comment from Mary Kane on Facebook: The Late Unpleasantness was really about states' rights. But since slavery was the cause celebre, that would have changed things considerably. Of course, there wouldn't have been the major plantations as we knew them. (Most Southerners didn't own slaves anyway.
Comment from Tina Fletcher Saulnier on Facebook: Out of some of the greatest adversities come the greatest successes. What I am meaning by this statement is that a good number of the greatest Americans that have populated the U.S. nation are black/African Americans (pray I'm not being politically incorrect). Though I take no pride in what our British and American ancestors did as far as enslaving other cultures, I do tend to wonder if our black brothers and sisters would have better off if such an alternative perspective did take place. Different countries and cultures in the Continent of Africa have been at war or odds with each other for centuries. I question that if black people had; in fact, stayed in places such as Africa or Jamaica, would there be more war, upheaval and contention among the cultures that lived there?
~ Eric Oppen is right. Before the cotton gin, slavery was on its way out.
~ In addition to revolts in North America, there would have to be actions against the slave holdings of the East India Company. They didn't give up their rights to slaves until the 1870s.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
