“Justice to India - Prosperity to England - Freedom to the Slave!” Humanitarian and Moral Reform Campaigns on India, Aborigines and American Slavery

This article considers British agitation against East India Company rule in India via an examination of the Aborigines Protection Society and the British India Society. Founded by humanitarians and moral reformers in the 1830s, these organisations placed India within a wide transnational context, wh...

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Published in:	Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 2012-04, Vol.22 (2), p.299-324
Main Author:	LAIDLAW, ZOË
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	19th century Abolition of slavery Abolitionism Abolitionists Aboriginal Australians Aborigines Americas Apprenticeship Art and archaeology Asia Average propensity to save Beginning of western colonies and British Raj British Empire Business structures Campaigns Colonialism Colonies Colonies & territories Colonization.(colonial history and chronicles) Committees Comparative studies England Ethnology European history Free trade Freedom From Middle Ages to today Generalities Historical source materials Humanitarian aid Humanitarianism Imperialism India Justice Lobbying Lobbyists Middle class Morality Native peoples Reform Reforms Research principies Rights Slavery Slaves Society Sources and methods Speeches Success Synthesis United Kingdom Victorian period
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Summary:	This article considers British agitation against East India Company rule in India via an examination of the Aborigines Protection Society and the British India Society. Founded by humanitarians and moral reformers in the 1830s, these organisations placed India within a wide transnational context, which stretched from Britain's settler and plantation colonies to Liberia and the United States. However, in the wake of slave emancipation, British campaigners struggled to reconcile their universal understanding of humanity with their equally strong confidence in the benefits of 'British civilisation'. Their nebulous and changeable programmes for reform failed to convince Britain's politicians and public that the challenges of free trade could be met by the exclusive use of free labour, or that all imperial subjects possessed equal rights. A fuller appreciation of these campaigns reveals the contradictions and occlusions inherent in mid-nineteenth century humanitarianism, and underscores the importance of a more geographically integrated approach to the history of opposition to Britain's empire.
ISSN:	1356-1863 0035-869X 2051-2066