80,000 Hours Podcast
#145 – Christopher Brown on why slavery abolition wasn't inevitable
Episode guests
Podcast summary created with Snipd AI
Quick takeaways
- The success of the abolitionist movement was not inevitable and required dedicated individuals and persistent efforts.
- The use of natural rights discourse and political opportunism played a crucial role in the growth of the anti-slavery movement.
- Quakers were the first community to question the moral basis of slaveholding within their own ranks, leading to the establishment of anti-slavery principles as a defining characteristic of being a Quaker.
- The American Revolution provided an opportunity to highlight the natural rights of enslaved people and contributed to the momentum against slavery.
- Recognizing the historical context and legacies of slavery compels individuals and societies to reflect on the harms and take action for positive change.
Deep dives
Quakers and the Internal Witness Against Slavery
Quakers, notably the Society of Friends, were the first community to question the moral basis of slaveholding within their own ranks. Dissenters within the Society of Friends challenged the violence, wealth, and control of slavery, arguing that it contradicted their pacifist, simplicity, and humility values. These dissenting voices gained traction within the Quaker community and established a collective identity centered around the objection to slaveholding. This internal witness led to the expulsion of slaveholders from the Society and the establishment of anti-slavery principles as a defining characteristic of being a Quaker.
Spreading the Quaker Witness
The anti-slavery ideas within the Society of Friends began to spread to Quaker congregations in other parts of the world. However, it faced resistance from Quakers who owned slaves or had economic interests tied to slavery. In England, where there was minimal slaveholding, Quakers initially showed support for aligning with the witness against slavery. However, they hesitated to turn their support into advocacy when American Quakers urged them to approach Parliament to abolish the slave trade. The journey from a Quaker witness against slavery within their own community to taking the message outside and advocating for broader society was met with challenges, both within and outside the Quaker movement.
Opportunism and Changing Discourse
The American Revolution provided an opportunity for Quakers to bring the issue of slavery to a wider audience. As debates raged around natural rights and representation, Quaker entrepreneurs such as Anthony Benezet seized the moment to highlight the natural rights of enslaved people. They saw the discourse around natural rights as an opportunity to gain traction for their anti-slavery message. Another factor that contributed to the momentum against slavery was the changing discourse around the naturalness and conventionality of slavery, challenging its foundations and narrowing the justifications to economic convenience. These factors combined allowed the anti-slavery movement to gain momentum and become increasingly difficult to ignore.
Distinctive Factors: Natural Rights Discourse and Political Opportunism
The distinctive factors that contributed to the success and growth of the anti-slavery movement during this time period included the presence of natural rights discourse and political opportunism. The groundwork laid by previous philosophers and political thinkers in developing the concept of natural rights allowed anti-slavery activists to draw on these ideas to challenge the institution of slavery. Additionally, the political climate of the American Revolution created an environment where natural rights were invoked, allowing Quakers and other activists to use this discourse to advocate for the rights and freedom of enslaved individuals. These factors, alongside changing perceptions of the nature of slavery, helped propel the anti-slavery movement forward.
The Role of Natural Rights in the Anti-Slavery Movement
The notion of natural rights had been present for centuries, but it had not led to significant anti-slavery movements. The use of natural rights in the fight against slavery was a new and significant development. The mobilization of these ideas in the late 18th century played a crucial role in the emergence of the anti-slavery movement.
The Gap Between Moral Intuitions and Actions
There is often a discrepancy between people's moral intuitions and their actions. This is evident in the history of anti-slavery, where many individuals recognized the cruelty of slavery but failed to take action. The gap between moral commitments and actions is a common phenomenon, and it's important to examine the factors that contribute to this disconnect.
The Influence of Political Dynamics
Political dynamics played a significant role in the abolition of slavery. The issue of slavery became a subject of intense political debate in the wake of the American Revolution. The question of whether natural rights extended to enslaved Africans in the Americas sparked political discussions and led to the emergence of anti-slavery sentiment. Political factors, such as the clash between Britain and the American colonies, propelled the anti-slavery movement forward.
Contingency and Persistence in the Anti-Slavery Movement
The anti-slavery movement faced significant challenges and obstacles, but it persisted over time. The movement's success was not inevitable, and it required the efforts of dedicated individuals, such as Thomas Clarkson, who played a crucial role in advocating for the abolition of the slave trade. While economic factors and changing values may have influenced the movement, it was ultimately the collective efforts and persistence of abolitionists that led to the eventual success of the movement.
The Contingency of Abolitionism and Historical Complexity
Abolitionism and the end of slavery were not inevitable and were contingent on specific historical circumstances. Slavery was deeply entrenched in human civilizations until the 18th century, and its decline was not a foregone conclusion. Economic factors alone, such as inefficiencies in slave labor or the rise of knowledge economies, could not completely account for the end of slavery. Slavery was not just an economic institution but also a strategy of difference and domination, often involving sexual exploitation and the service economy. Even if slavery had become economically less useful, it would have remained attractive to slave owners. The strength of the argument that Christianity played a pivotal role in the rise of abolitionism is limited by the historical fact that churches were major slaveholding institutions and Christian theologians defended slavery for centuries. The complexity of historical events and the multiplicity of causal relationships make it difficult to pinpoint one major shift in moral attitudes as inevitable.
Implications and Challenges of Understanding History
Studying the history of slavery and abolitionism can be uncomfortable and disheartening, given the atrocities committed and the legacies that persist in the modern world. However, avoiding or downplaying this history does not alleviate its consequences. Recognizing the historical context and legacies of slavery compels individuals and societies to reflect on the harms that have been perpetuated and enabled. It emphasizes the need for individuals to take action, both individually and collectively, to address ongoing issues and strive for positive change. Rather than relying on the notion of inevitable progress, this perspective highlights the importance of actively working towards leaving the world better than we found it. It calls for a sober understanding of history as a catalyst for personal and collective responsibility and action.
In many ways, humanity seems to have become more humane and inclusive over time. While there’s still a lot of progress to be made, campaigns to give people of different genders, races, sexualities, ethnicities, beliefs, and abilities equal treatment and rights have had significant success.
It’s tempting to believe this was inevitable — that the arc of history “bends toward justice,” and that as humans get richer, we’ll make even more moral progress.
But today's guest Christopher Brown — a professor of history at Columbia University and specialist in the abolitionist movement and the British Empire during the 18th and 19th centuries — believes the story of how slavery became unacceptable suggests moral progress is far from inevitable.
Links to learn more, video, highlights, and full transcript.
While most of us today feel that the abolition of slavery was sure to happen sooner or later as humans became richer and more educated, Christopher doesn't believe any of the arguments for that conclusion pass muster. If he's right, a counterfactual history where slavery remains widespread in 2023 isn't so far-fetched.
As Christopher lays out in his two key books, Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism and Arming Slaves: From Classical Times to the Modern Age, slavery has been ubiquitous throughout history. Slavery of some form was fundamental in Classical Greece, the Roman Empire, in much of the Islamic civilization, in South Asia, and in parts of early modern East Asia, Korea, China.
It was justified on all sorts of grounds that sound mad to us today. But according to Christopher, while there’s evidence that slavery was questioned in many of these civilisations, and periodically attacked by slaves themselves, there was no enduring or successful moral advocacy against slavery until the British abolitionist movement of the 1700s.
That movement first conquered Britain and its empire, then eventually the whole world. But the fact that there's only a single time in history that a persistent effort to ban slavery got off the ground is a big clue that opposition to slavery was a contingent matter: if abolition had been inevitable, we’d expect to see multiple independent abolitionist movements thoroughly history, providing redundancy should any one of them fail.
Christopher argues that this rarity is primarily down to the enormous economic and cultural incentives to deny the moral repugnancy of slavery, and crush opposition to it with violence wherever necessary.
Mere awareness is insufficient to guarantee a movement will arise to fix a problem. Humanity continues to allow many severe injustices to persist, despite being aware of them. So why is it so hard to imagine we might have done the same with forced labour?
In this episode, Christopher describes the unique and peculiar set of political, social and religious circumstances that gave rise to the only successful and lasting anti-slavery movement in human history. These circumstances were sufficiently improbable that Christopher believes there are very nearby worlds where abolitionism might never have taken off.
We also discuss:
- Various instantiations of slavery throughout human history
- Signs of antislavery sentiment before the 17th century
- The role of the Quakers in early British abolitionist movement
- The importance of individual “heroes” in the abolitionist movement
- Arguments against the idea that the abolition of slavery was contingent
- Whether there have ever been any major moral shifts that were inevitable
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Producer: Keiran Harris
Audio mastering: Milo McGuire
Transcriptions: Katy Moore
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