The Signatures of Social Structure: Petitioning for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in Manchester

• In Event: 1266 - Collective Behavior and Social Movements

Abstract

This paper considers the problem of popular, collectively organized political action in the context of the abolition movement of the slave trade (1788-1807). Various primary sources, a petition, a trade directory, church records, and a self-built historic GIS are used to locate petitioners for abolition in the social fabric of Manchester. Through matching and computational experiments the paper highlights which social structural forces made abolitionist petitioners possible, and which had limited importance. Specifically, gathering places that were historically involved in the movement, as well as those that housed traveling merchants from communities with successful abolitionist petitions from preceding campaigns turn out to be shaping abolitionist petitioning. The limits of ties to the Quaker congregation are also documented, and contrary to the mainstream historical understanding of the movement, no positive socioeconomic gradient is found in petitioning. The paper gives a new understanding of the role that early industrialization played in the abolition movement, building it from the bottom-up, forging cohesion within and across communities, rather than creating new boundaries and divides through processes of class formation.

Author

• Kinga Reka Makovi, New York University-Abu Dhabi