Joseph Pease in 1840 at the World Anti-Slavery Convention Joseph Pease (1772–1846) was an English Quaker activist. Among a number of reforming interests, he became best known in the context of the

British India Society The British India Society was a society concerned about ethical practice in India. It was founded in 1839, and from 1843 had a branch society in Bengal. Not to be confused with the India Society. About the Society The British India Society was fou ...

Life

He was a son of Joseph Pease (1737–1808) and his wife Mary Richardson, and a younger brother of Edward Pease. His father was a woollen manufacturer of Darlington, as was his brother Edward Pease, and he went into the same business. Sometimes referred to as Joseph Pease of Feethams, he is often confused with his nephew

Joseph Pease Joseph Pease may refer to: * Joseph Pease (railway pioneer) (1799–1872), railway owner, first Quaker elected Member of Parliament ** Sir Joseph Pease, 1st Baronet (1828–1903), MP 1865–1903, full name Joseph Whitwell Pease, son of Joseph Pease ...

, the first Quaker Member of Parliament. He made his name as an India reformer, and his branch of the family supported abolitionism in the form given to it by

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he foun ...

. ("Joseph Pease of Darlington" may also refer to his father or nephew.) Pease opposed the

Corn Laws The Corn Laws were tariffs and other trade restrictions on imported food and corn enforced in the United Kingdom between 1815 and 1846. The word ''corn'' in British English denotes all cereal grains, including wheat, oats and barley. They wer ...

from 1815. He was one of the founders of the

Peace Society The Peace Society, International Peace Society or London Peace Society originally known as the Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace, was a pioneering British pacifist organisation that was active from 1816 until the 1930s. H ...

in 1817. During the 1830s he became active in involving others in "India reform", which meant here commercial solutions to driving out the use of slaves in commodity production, as well as the abolition of Indian slavery. He found in George Thompson a speaker who would propagate this line. He drew in

William Allen William Allen may refer to: Politicians United States *William Allen (congressman) (1827–1881), United States Representative from Ohio *William Allen (governor) (1803–1879), U.S. Representative, Senator, and 31st Governor of Ohio *William ...

, and by the end of the 1830s the

Aborigines' Protection Society The Aborigines' Protection Society (APS) was an international human rights organisation founded in 1837,
...

was considering the matter. The British India Society (BIS) founded in 1839 was short-lived, not surviving in activity beyond 1843, but Pease was a central figure in it. Its direction, further than support of Garrison, was to promote cotton production in India, seek allies among moderate

Chartists Chartism was a working-class movement for political reform in the United Kingdom that erupted from 1838 to 1857 and was strongest in 1839, 1842 and 1848. It took its name from the People's Charter of 1838 and was a national protest movement, ...

, and oppose the divisive evangelical slant represented by the

Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society The Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (1833–1840) was an abolitionist, interracial organization in Boston, Massachusetts, in the mid-19th century. "During its brief history ... it orchestrated three national women's conventions, organized a mult ...

(BFASS). At the

World Anti-Slavery Convention The World Anti-Slavery Convention met for the first time at Exeter Hall in London, on 12–23 June 1840. It was organised by the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, largely on the initiative of the English Quaker Joseph Sturge. The ex ...

of 1840, Pease spoke and accused the British government of being complicit in the continuing existence of slavery in India. A supporter of the Anti-Slavery Society, he wrote tracts for it, in 1841 and 1842. He engaged

Dwarkanath Tagore Dwarkanath Tagore ( bn, দ্বারকানাথ ঠাকুর, ''Darokanath Ţhakur''; 1794–1846) was one of the first Indian industrialists to form an enterprise with British partners. He was the son of Ramlochon Tagore, the founder ...

on the topic of his Mansion House speech of 1842, finding it too militaristic. In 1843 British legislation made slavery illegal in India. Pease and Thompson put emphasis on the BIS as an ally of the Anti-Cornlaw League, and free trade. Their slighting of the BFASS, however, undermined the international dimension of their efforts. A successful charm offensive by James Cosmo Melvill of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

eventually caused Pease to soften his highly critical views of the Company.

Family

Pease married Elizabeth Beaumont, who died in 1824. His second wife was Anne Bradshaw, whom he married in 1831. John Beaumont Pease (1803–1873) and

Elizabeth Pease Nichol Elizabeth Nichol (''née'' Pease; 5 January 1807 – 3 February 1897) was a 19th-century British abolitionist, anti-segregationist, woman suffragist, chartist and anti-vivisectionist. She was active in the Peace Society, the Temperance movemen ...

were children of the first marriage.

Life

Family

Notes and references

Further reading