THERE IS DEATH IN THE POT - The University of Texas at Arlington

Anti-Slavery Society; Garrison assumed leadership of the AASS. Both organizations
were represented at the World Anti-Slavery Convention. 4
When American abolitionists sailed for England in the late spring of 1840, they
knew the challenges they were likely to encounter in London. Despite the London
Committee’s second call for delegates, requesting only male delegates, American
abolitionists counted on the influence of Garrison and George Thompson to sway the
British men to accept the female delegates. 5 Likewise, American supporters of free
produce hoped British abolitionists’ traditional support of the movement would overcome
gender and sectarian differences and that the convention would make a strong
international statement against slave-labor products.
World’s Anti-Slavery Convention
By the end of the 1830s, British abolitionists appeared poised to lead an
international movement against slavery. In 1833, as a result of abolitionist agitation,
Parliament passed the Emancipation Act, abolishing slavery on August 1, 1834 and
establishing an interim apprenticeship system, which would end in 1845. Five years
later, under tremendous public pressure, Parliament amended the Emancipation Act and
ended apprenticeship as of August 1, 1838. 6 The following April, British abolitionists,
4 Kennon, “‘An Apple of Discord,’” 245; McDaniel, “Our Country is the World,” 64-65; Sklar,
“The World Anti-Slavery Convention,” 318-319. Sklar notes that “by claiming a seat for herself at the
convention,” Orthodox Quaker Sarah Pugh was “tarred with the brush of Hicksite radicalism.”
5 Fladeland, Men and Brothers, 263-266.
6
Maynard, “The World’s Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840,” 452-455; Fladeland, Men and
Brothers, 195-256.
188