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

BIS, and the ACS clarified British abolitionists’ decision, after 1838, to focus their
reform energies on the abolition of slavery in the United States, a decision that became
readily apparent at the World Anti-Slavery Convention.
Responsibility for organizing the convention fell to British Quaker Joseph Sturge
and members of the London Committee, the executive committee of the British and
Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Considered among the more radical of British
abolitionists, Sturge embraced immediatism earlier than many of his male abolitionist
counterparts. Sturge had also opposed compensating slaveholders. Like Cropper and
Heyrick, Sturge recognized the connection between the abolition of slavery and relief for
the British poor. Yet, he like Cropper worried that a widespread boycott of slave-grown
cotton, for example, would close mills and displace British workers. In the mid- to late-
1830s, Sturge led the fight to discredit the apprenticeship system in the West Indies. In
1837, he traveled to the British colonies, gathering evidence that ultimately convinced
Parliament to end apprenticeship. Not surprisingly, Sturge played a key role in
establishing the BFASS. In planning for the convention, Sturge recruited support from
British anti-slavery societies. He also supervised efforts to gather information about
slavery and the slave trade throughout the world for presentation at the convention. 10
When Sturge and members of the London Committee learned that some American
anti-slavery societies had appointed female delegates to the World Convention, they
issued a second call for delegates, specifically asking for male delegates. Sturge called
10 Betty Fladeland, Abolitionists and Working-Class Problems in the Age of Industrialization
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1984), 49-73; Fladeland, Men and Brothers, 258-267;
Maynard, “The World’s Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840,” 455; Kennon, “‘An Apple of Discord,’” 250.
190