Immediate, Not Gradual Abolition: or, An Inquiry Into the Shortest, Safest, and Most Effectual Means of Getting Rid of West Indian Slavery

by Elizabeth Heyrick

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Genres: Nonfiction

40 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1824

About the author

Elizabeth Heyrick (nee Coltman) was an English Quaker abolitionist who argued that anything less than immediate abolition was immoral and ineffective. She was a founder of the Anti-Slavery Society in 1823. She encouraged opponents of slavery to boycott products of slave labor such as white sugar, believing that such market activity could bring the end of slavery regardless of government inaction on the issue.

Heyrick wrote pamphlets on an assortment of social issues.

Reviews

[Mel Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful little booklet, articulate and provocative. I find three ideas particularly powerful:

1. Heyrick insists in her main thesis that immediate abolition is the most moral AND the most likely to be successful, as opposed to "gradual emancipation."

2. She believes that individuals collectively exerting market pressure can effectively bring about the end of slavery regardless of Parliamentary inaction on the issue. Specifically, she helps popularize the campaign to boycott slave sugar. This is a fascinating idea about grassroots action that prefigures and predates Thoreau's Civil Disobedience by a quarter century. I could not immediately confirm her influence on Thoreau, but she certainly would meet with his approbation with such passages as these: "Let him reflect, that the grandest objects of human observation consist of small agglomerated particles; that the globe itself is composed of atoms too minute for discernment; that extended ages consist of accumulated moments. Let him reflect, that greater victories have been achieved by the combined expression of individual opinion, than by fleets and armies; that greater moral revolutions have been accomplished by the combined exertion of individual resolution, than were ever effected by acts of Parliament. "
Not only does she hold out little hope that government action will solve the slave problem, she points out that slaveholders are given an advantageous position by Parliament's imposition of tariffs on East India sugar. Not only has abolition of the slave trade not led to what the gradualists had hoped, Parliament has strengthened the hand of the slave powers.

3. Her discussion of the competing but unequal "rights" of the slave and the master is great, and certainly might apply to other arenas where competing rights clash.

I would have enjoyed hearing more from her, but am well rewarded for the time spent reading this book, which I found free online. I was led to it because of her influence on Gerrit Smith's ideas about combating slavery.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great effects often result from small beginnings. Your resolution will influence that of your friends and neighbors; each of them will, in like manner, influence their friends and neighbors; the example will spread from house to house, from city to city, till, among those who have any claim to humanity, there will be but one heart, and one mind—one resolution, one uniform practice.

Some pretty excellent polemic, and like most historical artifacts, relevant and resonant despite being written over two centuries ago.

[Larisa Jurović · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved Heyrick's input on the matter and her point of view. her writting is capable of enriching even the most pressing topics. there's overall a lot to take away from this book.

[Bread · Rating 5 out of 5]

quite influential in the abolitionist lit, heyrick argues against the belief that with the abolition of the slave trade, slavery itself would gradually die out. indeed, it had been a decade since its abolition, & no end was truly in sight. she makes a strong argument that w/o a decisive push to end slavery, the slave planters position would only strengthen w/ the indefinite delay+public sentiment would grow apathetic. furthermore, the gradualist objection re just compensation for the slave planter has to be properly weighed with the competing claim of the slave's liberty - to which there really is no competition. finally, she argues in favour of a grassroots campaign to boycott the products of slave labour, addressing the objection most people usually have when encouraged to boycott. this pamphlet changed the view of the leading abolitionists who then argued for the immediate abolition of slavery, & her boycott movement was also surprisingly effective. her arguments against gradual politics in general are also just still quite relevant today