James Ramsay (abolitionist)
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Rev. James Ramsay (25 July 1733 – July 1789) was a Scottish ship's surgeon, Anglican
priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...
, and leading
abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...
in Great Britain.


Early life and naval service

Ramsay was born at
Fraserburgh Fraserburgh (; sco, The Broch or ; gd, A' Bhruaich) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland with a population recorded in the 2011 Census at 13,100. It lies at the far northeast corner of Aberdeenshire, about north of Aberdeen, and north of ...
, Aberdeenshire,
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
, the son of William Ramsay, ship's carpenter, and Margaret Ogilvie of Angus. Apprenticed to a local surgeon, and later educated at
King's College, Aberdeen King's College in Old Aberdeen, Scotland, the full title of which is The University and King's College of Aberdeen (''Collegium Regium Abredonense''), is a formerly independent university founded in 1495 and now an integral part of the Universi ...
, from 1750 to 1755, he obtained his MA degree in 1753 and went on to continue his surgical training in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
under Dr George Macaulay. Having entered the
Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...
in 1757, Ramsay served as surgeon aboard in the
West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
, under the command of Sir Charles Middleton. In November 1759, the ''Arundel'' intercepted a British
slave ship Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea coast ...
, the ''Swift'' and, on boarding the vessel, Ramsay found over 100 slaves living in the most inhumane conditions. Such was the scene of filth and degradation he witnessed, that this incident was to have a lasting effect on Ramsay. While serving at sea he fell and fractured his thigh bone, and was disqualified from future service, remaining lame for the remainder of his life.


Ordination and work in the West Indies

In July 1761 Ramsay left the navy to take holy orders. He was ordained into the
Anglican church Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
in November 1761 by the
Bishop of London A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
. Choosing to work among slaves on the Caribbean, he travelled to the island of Saint Christopher (now
Saint Kitts Saint Kitts, officially the Saint Christopher Island, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis cons ...
), where he was appointed to St. John's, Capisterre in 1762, and to Christ Church Nichola Town, the following year. James Ramsay married Rebecca Akers, the daughter of Edmund Akers, a plantation owner on St Kitts, in 1763. They had one son and three daughters. Their son died young of small-pox, having caught the disease from his father, who had been volunteering on a ship that had that disease on board "and had carried home the infection in his clothes". One of their daughters, Margaret, (1766 – Newtown, Ireland, April 1839) married Robert Smith (1754 – Chatham, Kent, 2 July 1813), a Major in the Royal Marines. Robert and Margaret Smith's daughter, Catherine Rebecca Smith (1796 – 10 October 1856), married Sir Thomas Osborne, 9th Baronet, on 6 April 1816 at St. Margaret's Church, Rochester,
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
. James and Rebecca Ramsay's youngest daughter, Jane, married her cousin Aretas Akers. One of their descendants was Aretas Akers-Douglas, 1st Viscount Chilston. Ramsay set out by welcoming both black and white parishioners into his church, with the aim of converting the slaves to Christianity. As well as pastoring the members of his church he practised medicine and surgery, providing a free service to the poor of the community. Having been appointed surgeon to several
plantations A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Th ...
on the island, he was able to see firsthand the conditions under which the slaves laboured and the brutality of many of the planters. He strongly criticised the cruel treatment and punishment meted out to the slaves, and became more convinced of the need to improve their conditions. This led him into involvement in local government, but he was the target of much antagonism and personal attack from the planters, who resented his interference, because of his measures to ameliorate the conditions of the slaves. His letters to the bishop of London illustrate the attitudes of the American colonists in the late 18th century. Ramsay left
St Kitts Saint Kitts, officially the Saint Christopher Island, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis cons ...
in 1777, exhausted by the continuing conflict with influential planters and businessmen. He returned to Britain and briefly lived with Sir Charles Middleton at
Teston Teston /ˈtiːstən/ The Place Names of Kent,Judith Glover,1976,Batsford. or /ˈtiːsən/ BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names — is a village in the Maidstone District of Kent, England. It is located on the A26 road out of Maidston ...
,
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
where Lady Middleton joined the cause of the campaign against the
slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
. He briefly rejoined the navy in April 1778, accepting a chaplaincy in the West Indies with Admiral Barrington, where he was engaged in intelligence gathering against the French. He returned to Britain in 1780 at the suggestion of Middleton, by then Comptroller of the Navy, with the intention of helping his radical reform of the
Navy Board The Navy Board (formerly known as the Council of the Marine or Council of the Marine Causes) was the commission responsible for the day-to-day civil administration of the Royal Navy between 1546 and 1832. The board was headquartered within the ...
and as his personal secretary. He was installed as
Vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...
of Teston and Vicar and
Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
of Nettlestead, Kent, these valuable positions being in the gift of Middleton.


Abolitionist activity

During the following three years Ramsay worked on his most significant ''An Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies'', published in 1784. It was this essay that influenced Beilby Porteus,
Bishop of Chester The Bishop of Chester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chester in the Province of York. The diocese extends across most of the historic county boundaries of Cheshire, including the Wirral Peninsula and has its see in the ...
and later
Bishop of London A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
, in his campaign to improve the conditions of slaves held by the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societi ...
, as well as bringing to public notice the debate about the slave trade. Ramsay contributed several further publications to the campaign, including ''An Inquiry into the Effects of Putting a Stop to the African Slave Trade'', published in 1784. Ramsay became part of the group of influential politicians,
philanthropists Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...
and churchmen based at
Teston Teston /ˈtiːstən/ The Place Names of Kent,Judith Glover,1976,Batsford. or /ˈtiːsən/ BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names — is a village in the Maidstone District of Kent, England. It is located on the A26 road out of Maidston ...
, and was persuaded by Lady Middleton, the wife of Charles Middleton, and others to publish his account of the horrors of the slave trade. They met at Barham Court. This was the first time that the British public had read an anti-slavery work by a mainstream Anglican writer who had witnessed the suffering of the slaves on the West-Indian plantations. Again he was severely challenged by the plantation owners in England who were threatened by his anti-slavery works and who attempted to refute his allegations, in many cases with vitriolic attacks on Ramsay's reputation and character, leading to a pamphlet war between the parties. He met with
William Pitt the Younger William Pitt the Younger (28 May 175923 January 1806) was a British statesman, the youngest and last prime minister of Great Britain (before the Acts of Union 1800) and then first prime minister of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Ire ...
, the
prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
, on several occasions and with
William Wilberforce William Wilberforce (24 August 175929 July 1833) was a British politician, philanthropist and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becom ...
in 1783 and played a significant part in the establishment of the campaign against the slave trade. It was Ramsay's meeting with
Thomas Clarkson Thomas Clarkson (28 March 1760 – 26 September 1846) was an English abolitionist, and a leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire. He helped found The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade (also known ...
in 1786 that encouraged the latter in his tireless efforts to obtain first-hand evidence of the trade, and indirectly led to the formation of the
Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, also known as the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and sometimes referred to as the Abolition Society or Anti-Slavery Society, was a British abolitionist group formed on ...
the following year.


Legacy

Hugely influential in the growing anti-slavery movement, Ramsay did not live to see the fruition of the campaign. He died in July 1789 and was buried at Teston. James Watt has argued: "His enemies acknowledged his exemplary qualities, while deploring the intemperate language of his books; and the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807 probably owed more to James Ramsay's personal integrity, ethical arguments, and constructive proposals than to any other influence."


Works

* ''An Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies'' (1784) * ''An Inquiry Into the Effects of Putting a Stop to the African Slave Trade: And of Granting Liberty to the Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies'' (1784)


See also

*
Abolitionism in the United Kingdom Abolitionism in the United Kingdom was the movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries to end the practice of slavery, whether formal or informal, in the United Kingdom, the British Empire and the world, including ending the Atlantic slav ...
* List of abolitionist forerunners


References


Further reading

* MacDonald, J. R. "James Ramsay" in ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford: University Press, 1896) * Shyllon, F. ''James Ramsay: the unknown abolitionist'' (Edinburgh: Canongate Publishing, 1977) * Carey, Brycchan. ''British Abolitionism and the Rhetoric of Sensibility: Writing, Sentiment, and Slavery, 1760–1807'' (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 109–124. * Hochschild, Adam. ''Bury the Chains: The British Struggle to Abolish Slavery'' (Basingstoke: Pan Macmillan, 2005) * Watt, J. "James Ramsay" in ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford: University Press, 2005)


External links


"James Ramsay (1733–1789)"
from Brycchan Carey's listing of British abolitionists {{DEFAULTSORT:Ramsay, James 1733 births 1789 deaths Alumni of the University of Aberdeen 18th-century Scottish Episcopalian priests British abolitionists People from Fraserburgh Christian abolitionists Anglican missionaries