The antislavery convention polarized British occupiers against Egyptian households over slavery

Evidence

The Anti-Slavery Convention may have provided a clear date from which the trade in slaves was no longer permissible, but it left open wide- ranging and important questions about the nature of the trade in Egypt. It also created a very thick wall: on one side stood the British officials of the occupation, who were quickly coming to believe that a proslavery solidarity existed among the Muslims of Egypt, and that any Egyptian who supported the officials of the slave trade bureaus would be considered a traitor by other Egyptians. On the other side of the wall stood the majority of Egyp- tians, who saw slaves as closely connected to their households and often treated them as part of their families, and who believed that the more gen- tle domestic bondage of Egypt actually benefited the slaves themselves. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 659 (#expands, via linked claim)

In one petition, the members of the Society praised the khedive for statements he had made against the slave trade in 1867, but questioned the lack of movement toward abolition of the institution since that time. The members of the Society chose their words carefully in addressing a ruler whose goal of raising Egypt to the level of Europe were well-known. In crushing the trade in slaves, they informed him, “Your Highness would thus become the pioneer of liberty, and Egypt[,] being a land of freedom[,] would take rank among the most civilized nations of the world.” — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 657 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

Related

• British anti-slavery pressure forced Egypt to sign the 1877 Slave Trade Convention (similarity 0.87)
• British abolitionist pressure forced khedive Ismail to sign abolition convention (similarity 0.86)
• British and Egyptian views of slavery rested on opposed domestic assumptions. (similarity 0.85)
• The 1877 Anti-Slavery Convention divided British occupiers from Egyptians over household slavery. (similarity 0.83)
• British antislavery pressure produced the 1877 Anglo-Egyptian Convention to end the slave trade (similarity 0.83)
• Egypt hired British officials to placate London abolitionists (similarity 0.83)
• Egyptian expansion into East Africa collided with British abolitionist scrutiny (similarity 0.82)
• The antislavery convention pitted British officials against Egyptians who defended household slavery. (similarity 0.81)
• British pressure forced Ismail into the 1877 slave-trade abolition treaty granting UK enforcement rights. (similarity 0.81)
• British and Egyptian actors disputed Islamic household norms through slavery debates (similarity 0.81)
• The 1877 Anglo-Egyptian Convention banned the slave trade but not slavery itself. (similarity 0.80)
• Britain used anti-slavery claims to justify its empire over Egypt and Sudan (similarity 0.80)
• British officials used antislavery rhetoric to dismiss Egypt’s empire and justify their own (similarity 0.80)
• British antislavery ideology morally delegitimized Egypt’s own empire in the Sudan (similarity 0.79)
• The 1877 Convention abolished slave trade but not slavery itself. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• The antislavery convention pitted British officials against Egyptians who defended household slavery. #expands (0.90) — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 659
• British antislavery pressure produced the 1877 Anglo-Egyptian Convention to end the slave trade #expands (0.80)
• British antislavery pressure leveraged Egypt’s European ambitions to compel abolition. #expands (0.50) — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 657