| This blog explores social attitudes in Jane Austen's time, discusses her novels, reviews forgotten 18th century novels, and throws some occasional shade at the modern academy. The introductory post is here. My "six simple questions for academics" post is here. Spoilers abound in my discussion of these forgotten novels, and I discuss 18th-century attitudes which I do not necessarily endorse. |
CMP#255 Mary Ann Hanway, novelist and champion of abolition
Entry in "A Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors of Great Britain" 1816 Mary Ann Hanway, a contemporary of Jane Austen, made her feelings clear about English involvement in the slave trade in her novel Andrew Stuart, the Northern Wanderer (1800), which I reviewed here. As I read and review the forgotten novels of the long eighteenth century, I always flag any mentions of slavery or the slave trade for the convenience of other researchers or readers who may be interested. The numerous examples I've found put paid to the notion that novelists such as Jane Austen couldn't touch on controversial topics. Specifically, it was not controversial to openly express abolitionist sentiments in your novel.
If it had been controversial for a female to speak up against the slave trade, you would think that the critics who reviewed these novels would have said so. I have yet to find a single example of this. Andrew Stuart was praised and well received in its day and the editorial against the slave trade is not mentioned in the reviews--because it was not at all unusual or objectionable. The European Review singled out “the very affecting story of Amantha” in Andrew Stuart for particular notice in its lengthy review, but did not mention the editorial against slavery embedded in that subplot.
The excerpt below is from the backstory of the fair but unfortunate Amantha, who is asking for help from a wealthy noblewoman, and is relating the full story of her parents' marriage and her childhood. In her narrative, we learn that Amantha's father, wishing to provide for his family, takes a position serving on a ship deployed to Africa.
If it had been controversial for a female to speak up against the slave trade, you would think that the critics who reviewed these novels would have said so. I have yet to find a single example of this. Andrew Stuart was praised and well received in its day and the editorial against the slave trade is not mentioned in the reviews--because it was not at all unusual or objectionable. The European Review singled out “the very affecting story of Amantha” in Andrew Stuart for particular notice in its lengthy review, but did not mention the editorial against slavery embedded in that subplot.
The excerpt below is from the backstory of the fair but unfortunate Amantha, who is asking for help from a wealthy noblewoman, and is relating the full story of her parents' marriage and her childhood. In her narrative, we learn that Amantha's father, wishing to provide for his family, takes a position serving on a ship deployed to Africa.
Ignatius Sancho (1729 – 1780) His Letters were published in 1783 Enslavement
Amantha's father's letters from Africa "breathed an air of pensive sorrow... except when roused to indignation as he portrayed the sufferings of Afric’s sable sons, condemned from their very high birth to the extreme of human misery; --by whom condemned? By Englishmen! Born in a land of liberty, vain of its privileges, proudly vaunting to all other nations of the earth the joys, the immunities, the various gratifications bestowed by Heaven on the sons of freedom, which, in their chartered island, protected alike the peasant and the Prince!
"These are the men that yearly come to traffic, to barter, to freight their ships, to consign to persecution, labour, stripes, and slavery their fellow-men; beings formed by the Omnipotent Creator of the universe, with the same passions, desires, susceptibilities, and feelings that actuate the bosoms of those born under a more temperate hemisphere!... It ever it is given to an isolated negro to escape the galling yoke that consigns his fellows to imperious ignorance—if, by something little short of a miracle, he meets a kind master, who in early life, nurtures the sapling that others destroy, introduced to a state of civilization, instructed in the language, laws, polity, and religion of his patron’s country, he becomes a rational creature and a worthy member of society.
"So few have philanthropy to make the experiment, that it is to be deeply regretted that many instances do not occur of what attainments the Africans are capable! One is on record; Ignatius Sancho, sensible, literate, admired, and patronized by the greatest men... who frequently condescended to correspond with him on various subjects... Their letters and his answers are in most people’s possession, and every one’s remembrance.”
Amantha's father's letters from Africa "breathed an air of pensive sorrow... except when roused to indignation as he portrayed the sufferings of Afric’s sable sons, condemned from their very high birth to the extreme of human misery; --by whom condemned? By Englishmen! Born in a land of liberty, vain of its privileges, proudly vaunting to all other nations of the earth the joys, the immunities, the various gratifications bestowed by Heaven on the sons of freedom, which, in their chartered island, protected alike the peasant and the Prince!
"These are the men that yearly come to traffic, to barter, to freight their ships, to consign to persecution, labour, stripes, and slavery their fellow-men; beings formed by the Omnipotent Creator of the universe, with the same passions, desires, susceptibilities, and feelings that actuate the bosoms of those born under a more temperate hemisphere!... It ever it is given to an isolated negro to escape the galling yoke that consigns his fellows to imperious ignorance—if, by something little short of a miracle, he meets a kind master, who in early life, nurtures the sapling that others destroy, introduced to a state of civilization, instructed in the language, laws, polity, and religion of his patron’s country, he becomes a rational creature and a worthy member of society.
"So few have philanthropy to make the experiment, that it is to be deeply regretted that many instances do not occur of what attainments the Africans are capable! One is on record; Ignatius Sancho, sensible, literate, admired, and patronized by the greatest men... who frequently condescended to correspond with him on various subjects... Their letters and his answers are in most people’s possession, and every one’s remembrance.”
We see that the two arguments Hanway advances are firstly, that Africans are made by the same Creator as Europeans and secondly, their condition of life is not because of any innate shortcoming in intelligence or capacity. Given access to an education and "a state of civilization," they are just as intelligent and capable as Europeans. These are the same sentiments voiced by Olivia Fairfield in The Woman of Colour, and are the same arguments made by the abolitionists, most of whom were evangelical Christians. It was not at all dangerous to voice these opinions in the public square, and no need to resort to subtle symbolism to protest the slave trade. If you were going to be elliptical and subtle in writing about the topic, it would be for a reason other than a fear of stirring up controversy.
To continue with Amantha, she paints a harrowing picture of what her father witnessed in Africa:
“In addition to his private woes, [Amantha's father's] soul sickened with repugnance at daily beholding, carried on by his countrymen, the horrid traffic for human flesh: his susceptible heart commiserated the inflictions that he was powerless to relieve. Drops of Christian charity filled his eye for the sorrows of those denominated Savages, by the barbarians who tore them from the circling arms of their parents, children, and wives, driving them in flocks, like brute beasts, to the sea-side, where, loaded with chains, goaded on by insults and stripes, they were compelled to ascend the side of that floating dungeon fated to convey them for ever from their country, relations, friends, and freedom, and to consign them for life to labour for the emolument of their rigid task-masters."
“In addition to his private woes, [Amantha's father's] soul sickened with repugnance at daily beholding, carried on by his countrymen, the horrid traffic for human flesh: his susceptible heart commiserated the inflictions that he was powerless to relieve. Drops of Christian charity filled his eye for the sorrows of those denominated Savages, by the barbarians who tore them from the circling arms of their parents, children, and wives, driving them in flocks, like brute beasts, to the sea-side, where, loaded with chains, goaded on by insults and stripes, they were compelled to ascend the side of that floating dungeon fated to convey them for ever from their country, relations, friends, and freedom, and to consign them for life to labour for the emolument of their rigid task-masters."
Hanway returns to the abolitionist theme in her dedication to Christabelle: the Maid of Rouen (1814) in a fulsome address to the Duke of Sussex, (one of the Royal Princes, the sons of King George III). “Your Royal Highness, humane, equitable, and just, whose ear is ever open to a tale of woe, and your hand always ready to relieve distress, from your exalted sphere you descend with benignity to commiserate the sufferings of the poor. You are always to be found in the Senate, pleading with energetic powerful oratory the cause of humanity, desirous to behold restored to freedom Afric’s sable sons, to see them enfranchised from their galling chains, their unjust thraldom, their enforced slavery!” By this time, the slave trade had been outlawed for Britons, but enslavement had not been abolished in British territories.
Impressment and the Press Gangs
Hanway also takes on the practise of impressment in Andrew Stuart when Andrew and his adoptive father are impressed into the Navy just as they are about to reach the coast of England after serving overseas.
“How repugnant must be the feelings of a Briton, who is taught to call himself the son of a land of freedom, when he is fated to behold a pestiferous gang of men-hunters, who are granted warrants…. To tear from their ships the veteran seaman, who after having gained by honest labour a hard-earned pittance, under the scorching dog-star’s burning heat, or shivered through a half year’s night on Greenland’s sterile coast, when returning to reap the reward of his toil, by this destructive power is dragged away like a criminal, thrown into a hold, condemned to breathe the contaminated air….…. behold his little property lost, by his detention, to those dear relatives for whose sake he sought to acquire it; his mourning wife and helpless children whom, after years of toil and absence, he is not permitted to see or embrace! This is too frequently the fate of a brave, loyal, and honest race of men, who fight for the protection of that liberty and those laws, which are thus outraged in their persons.”
Hanway also takes on the practise of impressment in Andrew Stuart when Andrew and his adoptive father are impressed into the Navy just as they are about to reach the coast of England after serving overseas.
“How repugnant must be the feelings of a Briton, who is taught to call himself the son of a land of freedom, when he is fated to behold a pestiferous gang of men-hunters, who are granted warrants…. To tear from their ships the veteran seaman, who after having gained by honest labour a hard-earned pittance, under the scorching dog-star’s burning heat, or shivered through a half year’s night on Greenland’s sterile coast, when returning to reap the reward of his toil, by this destructive power is dragged away like a criminal, thrown into a hold, condemned to breathe the contaminated air….…. behold his little property lost, by his detention, to those dear relatives for whose sake he sought to acquire it; his mourning wife and helpless children whom, after years of toil and absence, he is not permitted to see or embrace! This is too frequently the fate of a brave, loyal, and honest race of men, who fight for the protection of that liberty and those laws, which are thus outraged in their persons.”
Crimping
Andrew is seized and thrown aboard a vessel not once but twice in the noval. The novel's villain sends his henchmen to seize Andrew and throw him aboard a ship bound “bound to the East Indies, for the purpose of conveying a set of unfortunate beings, that had been inveigled by men denominated Crimps, to recruit the Company’s troops. Some were induced by golden promises to leave their wives and children, and barter their present happiness for ideal wealth. He found that many of these poor wretches had been trepanned by various artifices into houses kept purposes for this nefarious traffic, where they were secreted from their friends till the vessel was ready to receive them. Can it be believed that these receptables are in the very centre of the metropolis, not a hundred miles from the seat of justice, the courts of equity, the emporium of British freedom! Yet such is the fact, here they are confined, till transported to India’s burning shores.”
Andrew is seized and thrown aboard a vessel not once but twice in the noval. The novel's villain sends his henchmen to seize Andrew and throw him aboard a ship bound “bound to the East Indies, for the purpose of conveying a set of unfortunate beings, that had been inveigled by men denominated Crimps, to recruit the Company’s troops. Some were induced by golden promises to leave their wives and children, and barter their present happiness for ideal wealth. He found that many of these poor wretches had been trepanned by various artifices into houses kept purposes for this nefarious traffic, where they were secreted from their friends till the vessel was ready to receive them. Can it be believed that these receptables are in the very centre of the metropolis, not a hundred miles from the seat of justice, the courts of equity, the emporium of British freedom! Yet such is the fact, here they are confined, till transported to India’s burning shores.”
I had heard of impressment but not crimping. Hanway is not exaggerating. Baron Macaulay quotes A History of England in the Eighteenth Century which describes crimping in connection with the East India Company: ‘Great numbers of young men were inveigled or kidnapped by crimps in its service, confined often for long periods and with circumstances of the most aggravated cruelty, in secret depots which existed in the heart of London, and at least, in the dead of night, shipped for Hindostan.’
"The word crimp is connected with the Dutch word krimpe, a stew for keeping fish; from krimpen, to contract. Thus ‘the crimping of men is the decoying them into a resort where they can be detained until they are handed over to a shipper or recruiter, like fish kept in a stew till wanted for the table.’ Some men died in captivity before they were handed over to the Company, and there are records of men dying in their attempt to escape.
For many more examples of novels of the era which mentioned slavery and empire, check out my other blog posts tagged for East & West Indies & Slavery.
"The word crimp is connected with the Dutch word krimpe, a stew for keeping fish; from krimpen, to contract. Thus ‘the crimping of men is the decoying them into a resort where they can be detained until they are handed over to a shipper or recruiter, like fish kept in a stew till wanted for the table.’ Some men died in captivity before they were handed over to the Company, and there are records of men dying in their attempt to escape.
For many more examples of novels of the era which mentioned slavery and empire, check out my other blog posts tagged for East & West Indies & Slavery.
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 "We have no slaves at home" In A Contrary Wind, a variation on Mansfield Park, I created a character named William Gibson who is an active abolitionist. The merchants of Bristol arrange to have him seized by a gang and impressed into the Royal Navy. While confined, he recollects a line from Cowper's poem, The Task: "We have no slaves at home--then why abroad?" He ends up being assigned to the anti-slave patrol the British government established to suppress the slave trade off the African coast and writes a best-seller about his experiences. Click here for more about my novels. |
| Baron Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, and Baron Clive, Robert Clive. Macaulay's essay on Clive, ed. by A.M. Williams. 1900. |
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