ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationship between the anti-slavery movement and Australian convict transportation during the movement's first phase when it was focused on abolishing the slave trade, accomplished in 1807. The debacle became the subject of parliamentary debate and several government inquiries, and Wilberforce's opponents seized upon these reports of ill-treatment and misery. As Swaminathan argues, the case had an unprecedented profile in newspapers and popular media, and an immediate impact on public consciousness unlike the immediate suppression of Trail's case. There are several shared features of two cases that are worth exploring for what they reveal of the role of the navy in the entwined pro-slavery and counter-revolutionary factions at this time. During the war with France, the abolitionist cause lost popular support. The fight against slavery simultaneously provided a means of championing Britain’s civil and political institutions.
