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

In the 1840s and 1850s, American abolitionists continued to appeal for support
from British abolitionists. Divisions among the Americans, however, influenced similar
disagreements among the British, leaving both movements deeply divided over tactics
and personalities. Historian R. J. M. Blackett describes American black abolitionists who
visited England in this period as a “third force,” providing an alternative to political
abolitionists and Garrisonians who vied for British attention. As a “third force” —
independent, active contributors to the transatlantic abolitionist movement — black
abolitionists provided British supporters an opportunity to remain involved in the
movement without necessarily having to take sides. In 1850, Reverend Henry Highland
Garnet accepted an invitation from the Richardsons to tour Britain to promote free
produce. Garrisonians opposed free produce and Garnet’s tour because they worried it
would erode support for other, more efficient abolitionist tactics. Frederick Douglass
also opposed Garnet’s tour, claiming Garnet had never supported free produce in
America. Despite the criticism, Garnet’s tour was a success, leading to the establishment
of twenty-six free-produce societies by the end of January 1851. 2
In support of the re-energized British free-produce movement, Anna and Henry
Richardson produced pamphlets and circulars as well as the penny sheet, The Slave: His
1848, MS.B.1.6.2.67, Samuel J. May Papers, BPL. In the 1850s, British women such as Anna Richardson
formed the core of the organized abolitionist movement in Britain. Traditional male abolitionist activities
were of little value in addressing slavery at the international level while women’s activities such as
fundraising, boycotting, and moral pressure gained new prominence in Britain. Still, British women’s
support was divided along political and religious lines that mimicked the divisions in the American
movement. Midgley, Women against Slavery, 125-126.
2 Blackett, Building an Antislavery Wall, 119-123, 143-145. Blackett argues, “The fact that black
visitors were affiliated with one of the other wing of the movement was of little significance; what mattered
was that their independent approach provided many British abolitionists with a ‘practical’ alternative.”
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