The Instructions for the Guidance of Her Majesty's Naval Officers Employed in the Suppression of the Slave Trade (1844), issued to all serving officers on anti-slave-trade patrols, began with the assertion: ‘The Slave Trade has been denounced by all the civilized world as repugnant to every principle of justice and humanity.’ This chapter examines how far naval officers agreed with and were inspired by this sentiment. The navy's campaign against the transatlantic slave trade was one part of a complex history of British abolitionism, a multi-dimensional blend of religion, morality, philanthropy, politics, economics, national identity and public opinion. Furthermore, in the aftermath of the upheavals of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the mood of despondency in Britain – born of economic decline, unemployment and social unrest – was given focus by an enthusiasm for naval suppression, as a distraction from domestic affairs. But how far did individuals serving in the navy subscribe to abolitionist ideals? As the majority of nineteenth-century naval officers came from the middle or upper-middle classes, most would be exposed to a culture of anti-slavery sentiment in popular politics, literature and the press, as part of the wider middle-class evangelical reform movement during this period, which included free trade, temperance and the reform of manners. This is not to say that the lower ranks of the naval hierarchy were unresponsive to abolitionism. Anti-slavery was at various times a popular movement, with the involvement of all classes and both men and women in generating pressure for the abolition of the slave trade and, later, slavery in British colonies. Many testimonies of naval suppression offer emotion, insight and conviction regarding the anti-slavery cause, often driven by religious belief. However, others held more ambiguous views, particularly as attitudes regarding anti-slavery and race evolved and hardened as the century progressed.

Religiosity and the navy

The historical links between anti-slavery and religious dissent are well established. The eighteenth-century evangelical revival initiated by the writings of John Wesley, George Whitefield and others laid the foundation for a wide variety of nonconformist reform movements in Britain, including those led by Quakers, Baptists, Unitarians and Methodists. The new spirit of evangelical religion became active in political protest, finding expression in the anti-slavery cause.