TheWorld Anti-Slavery Convention met for the first time atExeter Hall in London, on 12–23 June 1840.^[2] It was organised by theBritish and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, largely on the initiative of the EnglishQuakerJoseph Sturge.^[2][3] The exclusion of women from the convention gave a great impetus to thewomen's suffrage movement in the United States.^[4]

TheSociety for the Abolition of the Slave Trade (officially Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade) was principally aQuaker society founded in 1787 by 12 men, nine of whom wereQuakers and threeAnglicans, one of whom wasThomas Clarkson. Due to their efforts, theinternational slave trade was abolished throughout theBritish Empire with the passing of theSlave Trade Act 1807. TheSociety for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions, in existence from 1823 to 1838, helped to bring about theSlavery Abolition Act 1833, advocated byWilliam Wilberforce, which abolished slavery in the British Empire from August 1834, when some 800,000 people in the British empire became free.^[5]

Similarly, in the 1830s many women and men in America acted on their religious convictions and moral outrage to become a part of theabolitionist movement. Many women in particular responded toWm. Lloyd Garrison's invitation to become involved in theAmerican Anti-Slavery Society. They were heavily involved, attending meetings and writing petitions.Arthur Tappan and other conservative members of the society objected to women engaging in politics publicly.^[6]

Given the perceived need for a society to campaign for anti-slavery worldwide, theBritish and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS) was accordingly founded in 1839.^[2] One of its first significant deeds was to organise the World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840: "Our expectations, we confess, were high, and the reality did not disappoint them."^{[7][page needed]} The preparations for this event had begun in 1839, when the Society circulated an advertisement inviting delegates to participate in the convention.^[2] Over 200 of the official delegates were British. The next largest group was the Americans, with around 50 delegates. Only small numbers of delegates from other nations attended.^[2]

Benjamin Robert Haydon paintedThe Anti-Slavery Society Convention, 1840, a year after the event^[6] that today is in theNational Portrait Gallery. This very large and detailed work shows Alexander as Treasurer of the new Society.^{[8][failed verification]} The painting portrays the 1840 meeting and was completed the next year.^[1] The new society's mission was "The universal extinction of slavery and theslave trade and the protection of the rights and interests of the enfranchised population in theBritish possessions and of all persons captured as slaves."^[8][9]

The circular message, distributed in 1839, provoked a controversial response from some American opponents of slavery. TheGarrisonian faction supported the participation of women in the anti-slavery movement. They were opposed by the supporters ofArthur andLewis Tappan. When the latter group sent a message to the BFASS opposing the inclusion of women, a second circular was issued in February 1840 which explicitly stated that the meeting was limited to "gentlemen".^[2]

Despite the statement that women would not be admitted, many American and British female abolitionists, includingLucretia Mott,Elizabeth Cady Stanton, andLady Byron, appeared at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. TheAmerican Anti-Slavery Society, the Garrisonian faction, made a point to include a woman,Lucretia Mott, and an African American,Charles Lenox Remond, in their delegation.^[10] Both theMassachusetts andPennsylvania Anti-Slavery Societies sent women members as their delegates, includingAbigail Kimber,Elizabeth Neall,Mary Grew, andSarah Pugh.^[10] Cady Stanton was not herself a delegate; she was in England on her honeymoon, accompanying her husbandHenry Brewster Stanton, who was a delegate. (Notably, he was aligned with the American faction that opposed women's equality.)^[10]Wendell Phillips proposed that female delegates should be admitted, and much of the first day of the convention was devoted to discussing whether they should be allowed to participate.^[2] Published reports from the convention noted "The upper end and one side of the room were appropriated to ladies, of whom a considerable number were present, including several female abolitionists from the United States." The women were allowed to watch and listen from the spectators gallery but could not take part.^[6]

In sympathy with the excluded women, the AmericansWilliam Garrison,Charles Lenox Remond,Nathaniel P. Rogers, and William Adams refused to take their seat as delegates as well, and joined the women in the spectators' gallery.

Lucretia Mott andElizabeth Cady Stanton, who eight years later organized theSeneca Falls Convention, met at this convention.^[11]

The convention's organising committee had asked the ReverendBenjamin Godwin to prepare a paper on the ethics of slavery.^[12] The convention unanimously accepted his paper, which condemned not just slavery but also the world's religious leaders and every community who had failed to condemn the practice. The convention resolved to write to every religious leader to share this view. The convention called on all religious communities to eject any supporters of slavery from their midst.^[13]

George William Alexander reported on his visits in 1839, with James Whitehorn, toSweden and theNetherlands to discuss the conditions of slaves in theDutch colonies and inSuriname. In Suriname, he reported, there were over 100,000 slaves with an annual attrition rate of twenty per cent. The convention prepared open letters of protest to the respective sovereigns.^[7]

Joseph Pease spoke and accused the British government of being complicit in the continuing existence of slavery in India.^[14]

After leaving the convention on the first day, being denied full access to the proceedings,Lucretia Mott andElizabeth Cady Stanton "walked home arm in arm, commenting on the incidents of the day, [and] we resolved to hold a convention as soon as we returned home, and form a society to advocate the rights of women." Eight years later they hosted theSeneca Falls Convention inSeneca Falls, New York.^[9]

One hundred years later, theWomen's Centennial Congress was held in America to celebrate the progress that women had made since they were prevented from speaking at this conference.

The official list of delegates has 493 names.^[15]

(1812-1883)

• Maynard, Douglas H. (1960). "The World's Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840".The Mississippi Valley Historical Review.47 (3):452–471.doi:10.2307/1888877.JSTOR 1888877.
• Sklar, Kathryn Kish (1990). ""Women Who Speak for an Entire Nation": American and British Women Compared at the World Anti-Slavery Convention, London, 1840".Pacific Historical Review.59 (4):453–499.doi:10.2307/3640236.JSTOR 3640236.

• Kennon, D. R. (1984). "'An apple of discord': The woman question at the world's anti-slavery convention of 1840".Slavery & Abolition.5 (3):244–266.doi:10.1080/01440398408574876.
• "The Anti-Slavery Convention".The Citizen (Dublin).2 (10):213–222. August 1840.

• Media related toThe Anti-Slavery Society Convention, 1840 at Wikimedia Commons

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