The cruel Atlantic trade

by Ben Soton

The Great Resistance – The 400-Year to end Slavery in The Americas by Carrie Gibson, Basic Books, New York 2026, 640 pp, Hbk £30 Pbk £20

The 16th Century saw the opening up of the Americas and the establishment of transatlantic trade routes.  The trade in sugar, cotton and tobacco was central to the development of capitalism and with it the industrial revolution; central to this process was the trade in human capital across the Atlantic ocean.
In this book Carrie Gibson gives a detailed account of resistance to this evil institution. 
She pieces together a myriad of small texts and in so constructs the four-hundred-year history of slavery in the Americas. It begins in the late 1400s and ends in 1888 with the abolition of slavery in Brazil. 
The transatlantic slave trade was initiated by Spain and Portugal and later involved Britain, France and to a lesser extent the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden.  Resistance took many forms, including suicide, while rebellions took place almost as soon as the slave-trade began.  Resistance also took the form of guerilla warfare. Slave revolts took place wherever slavery existed and were more widespread than many of us may have previously been aware.
The book goes into considerable detail as to how the major events of late 18th century contributed to the ending of slavery.  The American War of Independence saw both sides offering to free slaves prepared to join their fight. The French Revolution, with its emphasis of ‘The Rights of Man’, influenced the successful revolt in Haiti – the first state to abolish slavery in the Caribbean. It was not the actions of well-meaning white folk but the result of the actions of slaves themselves that ended slavery; a theme that the author stresses throughout the book.  
Gibson downplays the role of Royal Navy’s West African Squadron in ending the slave trade in 1807.  Gibson points out that most of the captives liberated were not returned to Africa but ended up in the Americas as indentured labourers.  She also points out that the African Squadron was more of a means of extending Britain’s imperial interests in Africa than actually helping Africans.  On a more surprising note the author is highly critical of Simon Bolivar, a hero of the Latin American left, whose attitude to people of colour was at best ambiguous.   
The 19th century saw the gradual abolition of slavery across the Americas. It did not result in an age of prosperity for the former enslaved people; after all it was their former owners who received compensation. The freed slaves still suffered from the ravages of colonialism, segregation and racism. Problems that are for the most part unresolved. The book stands as a testimony to those who fought against the evil institution of slavery.    

1837: The Murder of Elijah Lovejoy

by Chris Mahin

His killing by racists shocked the conscience of America – and led to a nationwide outpouring of indignation, just as the murder of George Floyd did many years later. His murder constituted a brutal attack on freedom of the press – long before a president denounced “fake news” and cheered on physical assaults against journalists. This year, as the United States grapples with its long history of racial oppression and the ongoing efforts to muzzle the media, it’s important to honour the memory of 19th century anti-slavery journalist Elijah Lovejoy, killed 183 years ago.
    At about three o’clock in the morning on November 7th  1837, the steamboat Missouri Fulton unloaded a printing press it was delivering to the Mississippi River town of Alton, Illinois. The printing press was brought into a warehouse owned by a businessman sympathetic to the fight against slavery. That printing press was supposed to produce the Alton Observer, an anti-slavery newspaper edited by Elijah Lovejoy, a 34-year-old Presbyterian minister. Soon, a drunken mob of 200 people began throwing stones. When attempts were made to set the warehouse’s roof on fire, Lovejoy emerged from inside the building in an effort to stop the burning. Five shots rang out, killing him.
    The mob broke apart the printing press and threw the pieces into the Mississippi river. It was not the first time that one of Lovejoy’s presses had been destroyed. Lovejoy began his journalistic career in St Louis in the mid-1830s. There, his printing press had been demolished and his home burglarised because of his anti-slavery editorials. In May 1836, Lovejoy was forced to flee St Louis. He moved his family across the Mississippi river to the town of Alton in the free state of Illinois. There, he continued to editorialise against slavery. Pro-slavery mobs in Alton destroyed his presses several times. Each time, Lovejoy obtained a new printing press and continued to speak out against slavery.
    The death of Lovejoy set off a chain of events which transformed America. Public meetings of protest were held throughout the North and Midwest. Former President John Quincy Adams described Lovejoy as America’s first martyr to freedom of the press and the freedom of the slave. Abraham Lincoln denounced the killing. The great orator Wendell Phillips launched his life-long campaign against slavery and injustice with a heartfelt speech in Boston’s Faneuil Hall condemning Lovejoy’s murder. At a meeting in Ohio, John Brown stood up, raised his hand – as if swearing an oath – and pledged to dedicate the rest of his life to the fight against slavery.
    The horrific murder of Lovejoy helped people understand that slavery was wrong and that it not only destroyed the freedom of the enslaved, but also endangered the freedom of the people of the North and West as well.
     Like the young activists protesting in the streets today, the abolitionists of the 19th century felt an obligation to speak out against the most horrific wrongs of their generation. In Lovejoy’s time, the 10,000 families that controlled the largest Southern plantations (and owned most of the slaves in the United States) completely dominated the political life of the country. That handful of people, a tiny percentage of the 30 million human beings then residing in the United States, were prepared to do anything necessary to maintain their political control. (They certainly showed that by killing Lovejoy.) Today, one per cent of the population of the United States controls the vast majority of the wealth and dominates the political life of the country.
    Elijah Lovejoy was forced to flee the city of St Louis in May 1836. The Dred Scott case which ended with a vicious, racist US Supreme Court decision denying the humanity of African Americans was first filed in St Louis in April 1846. In November 2020, Cori Bush, an African American nurse active in the fight against police brutality, was elected to the US House of Representatives — representing St Louis. The spirit of Elijah Lovejoy and Dred Scott lives on in all those who continue the struggle for justice today and who persevere in the fight to end the domination of this country by the wealthy one per cent.

Remember Antietam!

Lincoln with his generals after the battle

by Chris Mahin

It was the bloodiest single day of fighting ever to take place in North America. On that day, more than 2,000 men gave their lives to halt a slaveholders’ army. Within days of their sacrifice, the first step was taken to abolish slavery in the United States. The Civil War’s Battle of Antietam deserves to be commemorated by all those fighting to transform society today.
    In a sense, the process of abolishing unjust property relations in this country began on 17th September 1862, on a battlefield near Antietam Creek in western Maryland. Twelve hours of hard fighting by brave soldiers that day gave the Union Army a victory of sorts. That gave Abraham Lincoln the political protection he needed to begin steps that would transform the Civil War from a defensive war to save the Union into a revolutionary war to abolish slavery.
    Five days after Antietam, Lincoln convened his Cabinet and announced that, if the Confederate states were still in rebellion on 1st January 1863, he would free all their slaves. Lincoln was true to his word and, on New Year’s Day in 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This executive order freed only the slaves in those states or parts of states that were in rebellion. It did not abolish slavery throughout the United States. However, it transformed the nature of the war, and unleashed a process that led inexorably to the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which did abolish slavery throughout the United States.
    By the time of the Civil War, slavery in the United States was dominated by wealthy capitalists, most of whom owned thousands of slaves. This tiny elite represented about one percent of the population of the United States. They sold their cotton and other commodities on the world market and were an important part of the world capitalist system. Since the average price of a slave was $1,000 and there were four million slaves in the United States, emancipation removed $4 billion in value from the hands of capitalists.
    At its time, the abolition of slavery in the United States was the greatest blow to a form of capitalist private property which had ever taken place in history. (That remained true until the Soviet Revolution of 1917)
    So, in a sense, the process of abolishing unjust property relations in this country began on the Antietam battlefield. The stage for the battle was set in early September 1862. Emboldened by several recent victories, General Robert E Lee moved the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia into Maryland, a slave state that had remained in the Union. A major Confederate victory inside Union territory would strengthen pro-Confederate sentiment in the North right before the autumn 1862 Congressional elections. It might also convince some European powers to intervene in the war on the side of the Confederacy.
    Lee believed that the commander of the Union’s Army of the Potomac – General George B McClellan – was cautious to the point of cowardice. Lee also thought that McClellan’s army would be demoralised from recent defeats. As historian Stephen W Sears has pointed out, these assessments were “only half right”.
    McClellan was a supporter of slavery who constantly made excuses for why he would not fight the Confederate Army. At the Battle of Antietam, McClellan’s conduct fully justified Lee’s contempt for him. McClellan had learned Lee’s plans and had more troops at his disposal than Lee did. Still, he refused to move decisively against Lee, and allowed Lee’s army to escape after the battle.
    But if McClellan violated all the principles of warfare at Antietam, the same cannot be said for his soldiers. Forced to attack in “driblets” (as one Union general put it), the soldiers of the Army of the Potomac fought bravely.
    The courage of the Union troops was vividly demonstrated in the struggle to take “The Sunken Road” – a small depression at the edge of a farm. After several attacks against this strategic position failed, the task of capturing it fell to one of the Union Army’s most celebrated units – the Irish Brigade. This unit was known for marching into combat behind emerald green battle flags bearing gold shamrocks and harps. Shouting its battle cry (“Clear the way!”) in Irish, the Irish Brigade advanced across an open field. Intense enemy cannon and rifle fire “cut lanes” into its ranks. Within minutes, hundreds of its soldiers were killed or wounded. Ever since, the Sunken Road has been known as the “Bloody Lane.”
    In all, 2,108 Union soldiers were killed at Antietam; 9,549 were wounded; and 753 ended up missing. The carnage that day was so terrible that – as one Union soldier put it – “the whole landscape for an instant turned slightly red.” This sacrifice saved the day for the Union; Lee was forced to retreat back into Virginia.
    There are moments in history when the future of humanity rests on what a relatively few people are willing to endure. September 17th 1862, was such a moment. The bravery of the Union soldiers that day did not end the Civil War. Lee’s army would invade Union territory again, and the war would drag on for two more long years.
    The Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment, the fruit of Antietam, did not guarantee equality for African Americans or a just society. Eventually, the post-Civil War Reconstruction governments would be overthrown and the South plunged into a reign of terror which rivalled slavery. But acknowledging those grim facts should not blind us to the reality that, in a sense, the fight for a new America began at Antietam. The Union victory there transformed the Civil War into a revolutionary war to abolish one specific form of capitalist private property: chattel slavery.
    The finest tribute we can pay to those who died at Antietam is to finish their work. At Antietam, every soldier knew he risked his life if he drew enemy fire upon himself by picking up a flag dropped by a slain flag bearer. But battle flags in motion were absolutely necessary to signal the motion of troops, and so, time after time, a Union soldier picked up the fallen standard and raised it high again. In the Irish Brigade’s attempt to take the “Bloody Lane,” 16 of its flag-bearers were shot dead, one after another.
    Today, “picking up the flag” means fighting to end the rule of all capitalists, just as those who served in the Union Army helped end the rule of one kind of capitalist, the slave-owning capitalist. When we fight that good fight, we pay our best homage to those who bled for freedom’s cause years ago beside a winding creek, on a day when the very landscape itself seemed to turn red.

Labour fought slavery in the American Civil War; How do we fight it now?

By Chris Mahin

The main headline proclaimed the news in large capital letters set in thick black type: “THE CONSUMMATION!”

Below, only slightly smaller headlines continued: “Slavery Forever Dead in the United States. … No Human Bondage After December 18, 1865.”

The New York Times had good reason to use dramatic headlines in its 19^th December 1865 edition. Those headlines reported a momentous development: Slavery was now illegal throughout the whole of the USA. US Secretary of State William Seward had signed a proclamation the previous day announcing the ratification of the 13th Amendment.

The 13^th Amendment states that: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Like all proposed amendments to the US Constitution, it had to be passed by a two-thirds majority of each house of Congress and then ratified by three-quarters of the states. The 13^th Amendment was passed by a two-thirds majority in the US Senate in 1864 and then by a two-thirds majority of the House in early 1865. When Georgia became the 27^th state to ratify the amendment in early December 1865, the conditions were met for Seward to announce that the measure had become the law of the land.

It’s important that we consider what the passage of the 13^th Amendment means for today.

It was the 13^th Amendment – not Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation – that made chattel slavery illegal throughout the whole of the USA. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 granted freedom only to slaves in territory controlled by those in rebellion against the federal government. Although the Emancipation Proclamation was an important blow against the slave-owners’ rebellion, it excluded hundreds of thousands of slaves in slave states that never seceded from the Union (like Delaware and Kentucky) and in parts of Virginia and Louisiana then occupied by the Union Army.

The sad truth however, is that whilst the 13^th Amendment made slavery and involuntary servitude illegal in the USA, it did not end slavery and involuntary servitude in the USA, nor did it bring about equality for the former slaves or their descendants.

Anyone who works in a factory where there is mandatory overtime knows that involuntary servitude still exists in parts of the USA. So does slavery. Many undocumented immigrant workers, for instance, work in sweatshops in conditions that amount to outright slavery. For millions of workers around the world, the growth of free trade for employers has meant an increase in slavery for workers. Today, those of us working in the USA find ourselves in a situation similar to the textile workers of Fall River, Massachusetts in 1844. They were told by the mill owners: “You must work as long and as cheap as the Slaves of the South, in order to compete with the Southern manufacturer.” For us, the “South” is the global South – the sweatshops outside the USA where workers are compelled to work under slave-labour conditions.

Before the Civil War, the most far-sighted leaders of the US labour movement spoke out against slavery, prompted by a combination of moral outrage and the practical necessity to oppose measures that would tend to drive the conditions of free labourers down to the level of slaves. The great opponent of slavery Thomas Wentworth Higginson was correct when he wrote in his memoirs that the anti-slavery cause was “far stronger for a time in the factories and shoe shops [of New England] than in the pulpits or colleges.”

When Lincoln called for volunteers after the secessionists attacked Fort Sumter in April 1861, carpenters, painters, shoemakers, tailors, clerks, mill operatives, printers and other workers left their jobs and joined the Union’s military forces.

Immigrant workers comprised 24 per cent of the Union Army and played an important role in the war. The De Kalb regiment was made up entirely of German clerks. The Garibaldi Guard was composed of Italian workers. The Polish Legion was organised by Polish workers. ‘The Fighting Sixty-Ninth’ – the 69^th Regiment from New York – included many Irish immigrant workers.

Entire local unions enlisted in response to the attack on Fort Sumter. A Philadelphia local union entered the following in its minutes: “It having been resolved to enlist with Uncle Sam for the war, this Union stands adjourned until the Union is safe or we are whipped.”

Slaves ran away, found their way to the Union Army’s lines, and insisted that they be allowed to join the army and fight.

All this is part of labour history and of our common heritage. We should never forget that hundreds of thousands of workers had to spill their blood to place the 13^th Amendment into the Constitution of the USA. Today, our challenge is to figure out how to make this country implement that amendment in fact, not just in words – in the midst of a new economy where there is slavery all around us. The workers of the Civil War era were not afraid to envision a completely new world; we should not be afraid to do so either.