Description:Lectures, speeches, public addresses and sermons were a vitally important way of spreading the word about slavery to the Birmingham public. The extract above shows a dramatic example of how Rev. Thomas Swan, minister of Canon Street Baptist Church and member of the Birmingham Antislavery Society, expressed Birmingham's evangelical role in the quest for emancipation:
"....But the sons of Birmingham will not be silent – they will speak out - & from them the sound will go out to the ends of the earth – it will enter the houses of parliament – it will be heard in the Islands of the West - the slaves will be glad, the missionaries will triumph - the tyrants will tremble – it will be heard in ( ??? ) and the tainted hypocrites will quail, & be convinced that they require a revival indeed - yes, to the men of Birmingham, in a great degree, Britain is indebted for the Reform Bill !!! & they will not rest as long as slavery continues in any part of the world- they will lift up their voice like a trumpet, till man is happy, & all the world shall know that God is love"
Swan's personal history and relationship to the antislavery cause was linked to a diverse background. He was Professor of Theology at the College of Serampore in India in the 1820s, before being appointed minister at Cannon Street Baptist Church in 1829. Afterwards, alongside being a member of the Birmingham Antislavery Society, he was also secretary of the Birmingham Auxiliary of the Baptist Missionary Society. His international concerns were matched by involvement in domestic issues at home, such as parlimentary reform (mentioned in the extract)and the temperance cause.
So whilst the Birmingham Antislavery Society set out its own agenda for change, it is important to recognise that figures such as Joseph Sturge, John Angel James and Rev. Thomas Swan continually involved themselves in a whole spectrum of interlinked social causes in Birmingham, Great Britain, the West Indies, Africa, India and the Americas.
Archive References/Details
Swan's surviving papers (MS: 1675) include annual reports of the Society which detail its work in India, South Africa and the West Indies. It holds addresses on the emancipation of slaves; and some copies of correspondence with Joseph Sturge over the freeing of slaves in the West Indies in the 1830's.