March 2007 marks the 200th anniversary of the passage of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act by the British Parliament. This Act made illegal the slave trade throughout the British Empire.

During this year events are being held to remember those who suffered from slavery, to consider the impact of slavery on our own community and the reaction to it, and also to be challenged to act on behalf of those who today are exploited as economic commodities.

Defining Slavery
“No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.”
Article 4, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948

What is slavery?
Common characteristics distinguish slavery from other human rights violations and are established in international law.
A slave is:
• forced to work – through mental or physical threat;
• owned or controlled by an ‘employer’, usually through mental or physical abuse or threatened abuse;
• dehumanised, treated as a commodity or bought and sold as ‘property’;
• physically constrained or has restrictions placed on his/her freedom of movement. 
Extract from CTBI site 

St Patrick turns to God during his slavery in Ireland
‘I, Patrick, a sinner, most rustic, the least of all the faithful, and utterly despised by many. My father was Calpornius, a deacon, son of Potitus, a priest, of the village Bannavem Taburniæ; he had a country seat nearby, and there I was taken captive.
I was then about sixteen years of age. I did not know the true God. I was taken into captivity to Ireland with many thousands of people – and deservedly so, because we turned away from God, and did not keep His commandments, and did not obey our priests, who used to remind us of our salvation. And the Lord brought over us the wrath of his anger and scattered us among many nations, even unto the utmost part of the earth, where now my littleness is placed among strangers.
And there the Lord opened the sense of my unbelief that I might at last remember my sins and be converted with all my heart to the Lord my God, who had regard for my abjection, and mercy on my youth and ignorance, and watched over me before I knew Him, and before I was able to distinguish between good and evil, and guarded me, and comforted me as would a father his son.’

Slaves in Ireland
Trade in the eighteenth century took Irish people to many parts of the world and they must have brought back some human cargo. Newspapers carried advertisements such as this:
‘A most beautiful black Negro girl, just brought from Carolina, aged eleven or twelve years who understands and speaks English, very fit to wait on a lady, to be disposed of. Application to be made to James Carolan, Carrickmacross, or to Mr. Gavan in Bridge Street, Dublin.’  Dublin Mercury, 1768
            In 1786 a merchant, Waddell Cunningham, proposed setting up a Belfast Slave-Ship Company but nothing came of it, probably because of local opposition.

Support for Abolition of the Slave Trade in Belfast
Olaudah Equiano (1745–97) visits Belfast
Olaudah Equiano was born in Africa, captured when he was 11, sold into slavery and transported to the West Indies. He spent time in Virginia before being brought to London. He was eventually sold again in Montseratt, where he bought his freedom. He had become educated and was a Christian evangelist. His autobiography was published in 1791 and its detailed accounts of international slavery and the slave trade galvanised the British campaign for abolition.
His book sold well in Ireland where the desire for abolition chimed with the call for religious and political freedom, and the metaphor of slavery was often used when attacking other forms of injustice, such as the Penal Laws and tithes. Belfast was a centre for radical thinking and when Equiano visited the town in 1791 he stayed with the Presbyterian United Irishman, Samuel Neilson. Afterwards the United Irishmen promoted anti-slavery in their literature and some, such as Thomas Russell refused to consume rum, sugar, or tobacco because they were seen as the products of slavery.
Irish merchants and traders benefited by exporting food and textiles to the expanding West Indies slave economy. Beef, pork, fish, butter, soap, candles and linen went out while sugar, rum and tobacco came in. For Belfast this trade was very important. Numbers of shoemakers expanded as they made shoes for slaves on the other side of the world. The growth of Belfast in the late eighteenth century was partly dependent on the existence of slavery. On the other hand increased prosperity helped to bring about the confidence where radical ideas could emerge and this in turn led to support for abolition.

Thomas Russell
For the Anglican radical, Thomas Russell, slavery was an abomination and he encouraged the boycott of the sweet products of the West Indies. He quoted: ‘On every lump of sugar I see a drop of human blood’ and said that ‘the blood of the Africans cries to God for the vengeance of these wrongs.’ His poem, ‘The Negro’s Complaint’, attempts to describe the feeling of an African slave, torn from his homeland and abused. In 1796 his Letter to the People of Ireland called for religious freedom at home and the end to slavery. He was executed in 1803 following Robert Emmet’s failed rebellion.

The McCrackens
‘All evils I think proceed from the want of real, vital and practical religion, for were all who profess to be Christians truly so in heart and practice, obedient to the commands so simple and easy to be understood…there would neither be slave holding in America…nor any of the numerous unjust and oppressive laws with which Gt. Britain abound…’
Henry Joy McCracken, McCraken letters, quoted in The Life and Times of Mary Ann McCracken, p.98
The devout Presbyterian, Henry Joy McCracken (executed as a United Irishman leader following the 1798 rebellion) and his sister Mary Ann McCracken, the political and social activist, were closely connected with Belfast’s trading economy. Their father, John McCracken was a ship’s captain who travelled to and from the West Indies. Like other supporters of the United Irishman movement Mary Ann was a founder member of the Women’s Anti-Slavery Society and, even when she was in her late eighties she continued to haunt the Belfast docks handing out literature attacking the existence of slavery. It was ironic that her own entrepreneurial involvement in the textile industry unintentionally helped to sustain the slave economy.

Slavery today
Slavery today takes many forms and affects men and women, young and old, from children sold to work in factories, women from eastern Europe are bonded into prostitution, men forced to work as slaves on south American agricultural estates. But could it happen here? People who speak another language, lack information about their rights, and work in isolated situations, can easily be exploited by unscrupulous employers. There is also no doubt that when people are trafficked they are at the mercy of others and can end up in a powerless position. This is certainly true of some women who end up in the sex industry here.
There is also anxiety about children who arrive in Ireland alone. Are the people who may claim them really their relatives? Have they been brought here for some sinister purpose? Might they end up in the sex industry or become domestic slaves? It is difficult to get accurate information about the local situation but research has been done in the south.
See The Irish Refugee Council’s recent report, Making Separated Children Visible

See also Philip Orr’s reflections on the anti-slavery movement in Belfast, Am I not a Man and a Brother
‘The question for us today is whether we are living up to this fine standard or not? Slavery is, arguably, more prevalent in the 21st century world. … Let us remember that over 200 years ago, local believers saw it as their task to expose exploitation and injustice. We should follow their path.’

Sources:
St Patrick’s Confession
Denis Carroll, The Man from God Knows Where. Thomas Russell, 1767-1803, 1995. Dublin 1995.
Mary McNeill, The Life and Times of Mary Ann McCracken 1770–1866: A Belfast Panorama, Dublin 1960.
Nini Rodgers, Equiano and Anti-Slavery in Eighteenth-Century Ireland, Belfast 2000.

Learn more from:
Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI)

The Micah Challenge

St Patrick’s Day Prayer Walk from Saul to Downpatrick

Trafficking pages   

Church Leaders visit Welcome Centre
On 1st June 2006, leaders of the four largest churches in Northern Ireland visited a day centre which provides basic support to migrant workers who are sleeping rough. They were invited by members of churches and voluntary organisations seeking to raise awareness of this escalating issue.

Northern Ireland is benefiting greatly from the many migrant workers who are coming into the province. The vast majority are employed in a wide range of industries and services and provide a very valuable contribution to our society and economy. Their tax and national insurance contributions are also significant.

However a small number are unable to find work or keep their jobs and become destitute. Factors contributing to this include employer exploitation, poor language skills, and work related accidents. Once unemployed, and not entitled to welfare payments, these workers struggle to maintain payments for rented accommodation and within a relatively short period of time can find themselves on the streets.

There have been a number of well publicised incidents regarding migrant workers sleeping rough on park benches and parked cars over the past few months. The most graphic example of the situation was that of Oksana Sukhanova, who lost both her legs following frostbite which had resulted from having to live on the streets during the winter of 04/05. Despite the outcry then, the reality is that the situation is far worse now, with many, many more migrant workers destitute.

The only safety net is provided by hostels for the homeless. However the hostel providers receive no support from the Department of Social Development for the places they provide and therefore they have to bear the cost themselves.

The Simon Community and the Welcome Centre are two organisations at the forefront of providing support for migrant workers who are sleeping rough. The Welcome Centre is a day centre, which provides hot food and shelter.

Mandy Jones from the Simon Community, spoke of the support they were providing for migrant workers. She highlighted several success stories where migrant workers who were homeless had been reintegrated into the workplace through the intervention of the Simon Community.

Rev Richard Kerr, who coordinated the visit, spoke of the need for action by Government, statutory bodies, businesses, voluntary agencies and Churches. “We cannot accept a situation where people, who are making such a significant contribution to our society, are being treated as second class citizens and have no access to a basic safety net in times of hardship.”

Change of Government policy on Immigration Detention Immigration detainees will no longer be held in Northern Ireland following a change in UK Government policy. Detainees will now be sent to removal centres in Scotland and England, separating them from family, community and legal support here. See Immigration detention page for more information.

Belfast Church in Racist Attack
On 9th March St Columcille’s in Ballyhackamore, East Belfast, was desecrated with graffiti, including racist, sectarian and sexual slogans. Many of its parishoners are Polish and Filipino workers from nearby Ulster Hospital. BBC report

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