A Microhistory of British Anti-Slavery Petitioning

Huzzey, Richard

doi:10.1017/ssh.2019.19

A Microhistory of British Anti-Slavery Petitioning

Huzzey, Richard

Authors

Professor Richard Huzzey richard.w.huzzey@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

This article refines our understanding of abolitionism as “the first modern social movement” through a microhistory of abolitionism in an eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British town. Examining requisitions, which collected signatures calling on a mayor to convene public meetings to launch parliamentary petitions or other associational activities, the article shows how antislavery mobilization in Plymouth grew amongst a multiplying variety of religious, political, cultural, and economic institutions. Through a prosopography of those initiating antislavery petitions, an analysis of the other requisitions they supported, and qualitative evidence from leading abolitionists’ personal papers, the article details the ways local leaders raised petitions for a national campaign. Civic and religious dynamism at this local level facilitated new forms of contentious mobilization on national and imperial issues. The article therefore directs causal attention to those socioeconomic changes that underpinned the associational cultures of abolitionism.

Citation

Huzzey, R. (2019). A Microhistory of British Anti-Slavery Petitioning. Social Science History, 43(3), 599-623. https://doi.org/10.1017/ssh.2019.19

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jun 15, 2018
Online Publication Date	Jun 19, 2019
Publication Date	2019
Deposit Date	Jun 26, 2018
Publicly Available Date	Jun 27, 2018
Journal	Social Science History
Print ISSN	0145-5532
Electronic ISSN	1527-8034
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	43
Issue	3
Pages	599-623
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1017/ssh.2019.19

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Copyright Statement
This article has been published in a revised form in Social Science History https://doi.org/10.1017/ssh.2019.19. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. © Social Science History Association, 2018.