1703: Hurricane-force winds kill as many as 8,000 people as the 'Great Storm' sweeps southern England.
1867: Due to a loophole in the law, Lily Maxwell is the first woman to vote in a British parliamentary election.
1922: Howard Carter opens the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings.
Abolishing the slave trade: 1787-1823
Although slavery was effectively illegal in England from 1772 and in Scotland from 1778, campaigns to abolish both the trade and the institution have continued ever since. Women participated in the campaign from its beginning and were gradually able to move from the private into the political arena as strategies changed.
Similar strategies were employed and developed during the 1866-1928 women's suffrage campaign, with the same individuals and families active in both campaigns.
In the early years, women influenced the campaign to abolish slavery, but they were not direct activists. This accorded with the prevalent view of women as a moral not a political force. As the campaign gained popularity, many women - ranging from the Whig aristocrat, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, to the Bristol milk-woman Ann Yearsley - published anti-slavery poems and stories.
Is one half of the human species, like the poor African slaves, to be subject to prejudices that brutalise them...only to sweeten the cup of men.
Yearsley's patron, Hannah More, publicised the campaign with 'Slavery, a Poem' (1788), which dramatically depicted the predicament of an enslaved woman, ill-used and separated from her children. This theme was repeatedly emphasised by women campaigners.
More was a member of a group of evangelicals associated with the anti-slavery campaign. Her friend, Lady Margaret Middleton, is credited with encouraging both the group's leaders, Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce, to take up the cause. Although, because she was a woman, Lady Middleton had no direct political power she was able to cajole her influential friends.
Ironically, it was against the necessity for women to exercise such wiles that Mary Wollstonecraft railed in 'Vindication of the Rights of Woman' (1792), writing 'When therefore I call women slaves, I mean in a political and civil sense; for, indirectly they obtain too much power and are debased by the exertions to obtain illicit sway.'
Influenced by the anti-slavery debate, she repeatedly likened men's domination of women to the planters' domination of slaves: 'Is one half of the human species, like the poor African slaves, to be subject to prejudices that brutalise them...only to sweeten the cup of men.'
This last reference was to sugar, grown on plantations that were dependent on the labour of enslaved people. Working- and middle-class families were encouraged by appeals to women to buy sugar produced in the East Indies using free labour. More than 300,000 people joined this boycott of sugar grown on plantations using slave labour.
Objects such as Wedgwood's cameos featuring the image of a kneeling, chained, black slave were bought by women to be used in bracelets and hairpins to publicise their support for the cause.
As well as these indirect contributions, in 1788 the Abolition Society and its provincial committees had 206 female subscribers. They were mainly of the 'middling sort' - wives and daughters of merchants, professionals, manufacturers and shopkeepers - drawn from Quaker, Unitarian and Evangelical families.
But women were not officers of these committees and were generally not invited to sign the thousands of petitions organised by the Abolition Society.
Women continued to be involved in the popular campaign until its collapse in 1792. The radicalism it inspired was no longer acceptable as France was ravaged by revolution. A decade and a half later, when national interests coincided with those of the abolitionists, smart parliamentary tactics ensured the Abolition Act was passed in 1807.
Abolishing slavery in the British colonies: 1823-1838
After Britain ended its direct involvement in the slave trade, there was no immediate clamour to end slavery in its colonies. However, when Wilberforce and Clarkson formed the Anti-Slavery Society in 1823 to end slavery in Britain's colonies, women once more took a direct part in the campaign, contributing to a change in strategy for the organisation.
In 1824, Elizabeth Heyrick, a Leicester Quaker, published 'Immediate, Not Gradual Abolition', which proposed the immediate emancipation of slaves in the British colonies rather than the gradual abolition suggested by the Anti-Slavery Society. Women's societies took up the call and in 1830, the Anti-Slavery Society agreed to the change.
A slight cultural change now permitted women to sign petitions and so make their views known to parliament.
The first women-only society was formed in Birmingham in 1825. Others followed, representing the campaign's major organisational development. There was opposition, however, to women's growing public participation in these societies.
Wilberforce commented: 'I fear its tendency would be to mix them in all the multiform warfare of political life.' His fear was well-grounded. A slight cultural change now permitted women to sign petitions and so make their views known to parliament.
In 1833 anti-slavery petitions bore the signatures of 298,785 women, nearly a quarter of the total presented that year. Campaigners built on previous experience. The women of the Birmingham society adopted an original Wedgwood cameo image as their logo. It featured a kneeling female slave and was captioned 'Am I not a Woman and a Sister'. Many groups now reject these passive, supplicant images produced by Wedgwood.
Women were still keen to boycott sugar produced on plantations using slave labour and, now they were organised, they were more able to promote local campaigns.
Many women were also involved with Chartists in the campaign for parliamentary reform and to repeal the Corn Laws. The resulting synergy strengthened each campaign, and created the cultural climate that allowed the reformed parliament to pass the act to end slavery in the British colonies in 1833.
The act became law in 1834 and imposed a period of 'apprenticeship' on slaves that finished in 1838. A national women's petition was organised on behalf of the apprentices and addressed to Queen Victoria. The petition carried 700,000 signatures of women, which was described as 'unprecedented in the annals of petitioning'.
1867: Due to a loophole in the law, Lily Maxwell is the first woman to vote in a British parliamentary election.
1922: Howard Carter opens the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings.
Abolishing the slave trade: 1787-1823
Although slavery was effectively illegal in England from 1772 and in Scotland from 1778, campaigns to abolish both the trade and the institution have continued ever since. Women participated in the campaign from its beginning and were gradually able to move from the private into the political arena as strategies changed.
Similar strategies were employed and developed during the 1866-1928 women's suffrage campaign, with the same individuals and families active in both campaigns.
In the early years, women influenced the campaign to abolish slavery, but they were not direct activists. This accorded with the prevalent view of women as a moral not a political force. As the campaign gained popularity, many women - ranging from the Whig aristocrat, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, to the Bristol milk-woman Ann Yearsley - published anti-slavery poems and stories.
Is one half of the human species, like the poor African slaves, to be subject to prejudices that brutalise them...only to sweeten the cup of men.
Yearsley's patron, Hannah More, publicised the campaign with 'Slavery, a Poem' (1788), which dramatically depicted the predicament of an enslaved woman, ill-used and separated from her children. This theme was repeatedly emphasised by women campaigners.
More was a member of a group of evangelicals associated with the anti-slavery campaign. Her friend, Lady Margaret Middleton, is credited with encouraging both the group's leaders, Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce, to take up the cause. Although, because she was a woman, Lady Middleton had no direct political power she was able to cajole her influential friends.
Ironically, it was against the necessity for women to exercise such wiles that Mary Wollstonecraft railed in 'Vindication of the Rights of Woman' (1792), writing 'When therefore I call women slaves, I mean in a political and civil sense; for, indirectly they obtain too much power and are debased by the exertions to obtain illicit sway.'
Influenced by the anti-slavery debate, she repeatedly likened men's domination of women to the planters' domination of slaves: 'Is one half of the human species, like the poor African slaves, to be subject to prejudices that brutalise them...only to sweeten the cup of men.'
This last reference was to sugar, grown on plantations that were dependent on the labour of enslaved people. Working- and middle-class families were encouraged by appeals to women to buy sugar produced in the East Indies using free labour. More than 300,000 people joined this boycott of sugar grown on plantations using slave labour.
Objects such as Wedgwood's cameos featuring the image of a kneeling, chained, black slave were bought by women to be used in bracelets and hairpins to publicise their support for the cause.
As well as these indirect contributions, in 1788 the Abolition Society and its provincial committees had 206 female subscribers. They were mainly of the 'middling sort' - wives and daughters of merchants, professionals, manufacturers and shopkeepers - drawn from Quaker, Unitarian and Evangelical families.
But women were not officers of these committees and were generally not invited to sign the thousands of petitions organised by the Abolition Society.
Women continued to be involved in the popular campaign until its collapse in 1792. The radicalism it inspired was no longer acceptable as France was ravaged by revolution. A decade and a half later, when national interests coincided with those of the abolitionists, smart parliamentary tactics ensured the Abolition Act was passed in 1807.
Abolishing slavery in the British colonies: 1823-1838
After Britain ended its direct involvement in the slave trade, there was no immediate clamour to end slavery in its colonies. However, when Wilberforce and Clarkson formed the Anti-Slavery Society in 1823 to end slavery in Britain's colonies, women once more took a direct part in the campaign, contributing to a change in strategy for the organisation.
In 1824, Elizabeth Heyrick, a Leicester Quaker, published 'Immediate, Not Gradual Abolition', which proposed the immediate emancipation of slaves in the British colonies rather than the gradual abolition suggested by the Anti-Slavery Society. Women's societies took up the call and in 1830, the Anti-Slavery Society agreed to the change.
A slight cultural change now permitted women to sign petitions and so make their views known to parliament.
The first women-only society was formed in Birmingham in 1825. Others followed, representing the campaign's major organisational development. There was opposition, however, to women's growing public participation in these societies.
Wilberforce commented: 'I fear its tendency would be to mix them in all the multiform warfare of political life.' His fear was well-grounded. A slight cultural change now permitted women to sign petitions and so make their views known to parliament.
In 1833 anti-slavery petitions bore the signatures of 298,785 women, nearly a quarter of the total presented that year. Campaigners built on previous experience. The women of the Birmingham society adopted an original Wedgwood cameo image as their logo. It featured a kneeling female slave and was captioned 'Am I not a Woman and a Sister'. Many groups now reject these passive, supplicant images produced by Wedgwood.
Women were still keen to boycott sugar produced on plantations using slave labour and, now they were organised, they were more able to promote local campaigns.
Many women were also involved with Chartists in the campaign for parliamentary reform and to repeal the Corn Laws. The resulting synergy strengthened each campaign, and created the cultural climate that allowed the reformed parliament to pass the act to end slavery in the British colonies in 1833.
The act became law in 1834 and imposed a period of 'apprenticeship' on slaves that finished in 1838. A national women's petition was organised on behalf of the apprentices and addressed to Queen Victoria. The petition carried 700,000 signatures of women, which was described as 'unprecedented in the annals of petitioning'.