Jane Smeal

Jane Smeal, the daughter of William Smeal, a Quaker tea merchant from Glasgow, was one of the leading figures in female the anti-slavery movement.

On 8th April, 1825, Lucy Townsend held a meeting at her home to discuss the issue of the role of women in the anti-slavery movement. Townsend, Elizabeth Heyrick, Mary Lloyd, Sarah Wedgwood, Sophia Sturge and the other women at the meeting decided to form the Birmingham Ladies Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves (later the group changed its name to the Female Society for Birmingham). (1) The group "promoted the sugar boycott, targeting shops as well as shoppers, visiting thousands of homes and distributing pamphlets, calling meetings and drawing petitions." (2)

The society which was, from its foundation, independent of both the national Anti-Slavery Society and of the local men's anti-slavery society. As Clare Midgley has pointed out: "It acted as the hub of a developing national network of female anti-slavery societies, rather than as a local auxiliary. It also had important international connections, and publicity on its activities in Benjamin Lundy's abolitionist periodical The Genius of Universal Emancipation influenced the formation of the first female anti-slavery societies in America". (3)

Jane Smeal formed a women's group in Glasgow. Other groups were established in Nottingham (Ann Taylor Gilbert), Sheffield (Mary Anne Rawson, Mary Roberts), Leicester (Elizabeth Heyrick, Susanna Watts), Norwich (Amelia Opie, Anna Gurney), London (Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, Mary Foster) and Chelmsford (Anne Knight). By 1831 there were seventy-three of these women's organisations campaigning against slavery. (4)

The Slavery Abolition Act was passed on 28th August 1833. This act gave all slaves in the British Empire their freedom. The British government paid £20 million in compensation to the slave owners. The amount that the plantation owners received depended on the number of slaves that they had. For example, Henry Phillpotts, the Bishop of Exeter, received £12,700 for the 665 slaves he owned. (5)

Jane Smeal joined forces with her friend Elizabeth Pease to campaign for universal suffrage. Smeal explained the problems she had in Glasgow: "The females in this city who have much leisure for philanthropic objects are I believe very numerous - but unhappily that is not the class who take an active part in the cause here - neither the noble, the rich, nor the learned are to be found advocating our cause. Our subscribers and most efficient members are all in the middling and working classes but they have great zeal and labour very harmoniously together." (6)

In March 1838, Jane Smeal and Elizabeth Pease published a pamphlet, Address to the Women of Great Britain, where they urged women to organise female political associations. (7)

Primary Sources

(1) Elizabeth Pease attempted to persuade working-class women in Darlington to join the campaign against slavery. Her friend, Jane Smeal, from Glasgow, wrote to her about this matter in 1836.

The females in this city who have much leisure for philanthropic objects are I believe very numerous - but unhappily that is not the class who take an active part in the cause here - neither the noble, the rich, nor the learned are to be found advocating our cause. Our subscribers and most efficient members are all in the middling and working classes but they have great zeal and labour very harmoniously together.

Student Activities

Child Labour Simulation (Teacher Notes)

Richard Arkwright and the Factory System (Answer Commentary)

Robert Owen and New Lanark (Answer Commentary)

James Watt and Steam Power (Answer Commentary)

The Domestic System (Answer Commentary)

The Luddites: 1775-1825 (Answer Commentary)

The Plight of the Handloom Weavers (Answer Commentary)

Road Transport and the Industrial Revolution (Answer Commentary)

Early Development of the Railways (Answer Commentary)

References

(1) Thomas Clarkson, letter to Lucy Townsend (3rd August, 1825)

(2) Adam Hochschild, Bury the Chains: The British Struggle to Abolish Slavery (2005) page 326

(3) Stephen Tomkins, William Wilberforce (2007) page 208

(4) Richard Reddie, Abolition! The Struggle to Abolish Slavery in the British Colonies (2007) page 214

(5) Jack Gratus, The Great White Lie (1973) page 240 (12)

(6) Jane Smeal, letter Elizabeth Pease (May, 1836)

(7) Clare Midgley, Elizabeth Pease Nichol : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)