This article considers the problem of popular, collectively organized political action in the context of the abolition movement of the slave trade (1788–1807). Various primary sources, a petition, a trade directory, church records, and a self-built historic GIS are used to locate petitioners for abolition in the social fabric of Manchester. Through matching and computational experiments the article highlights which social structural forces led individuals to support the abolition movement by signing a petition. Specifically, gathering places that were historically involved in the movement, as well as those that housed traveling merchants from communities with successful abolitionist petitions from preceding campaigns shaped abolitionist petitioning—and the impact of these institutions remained important over and above family ties, active religious congregations, and the occupational groups. The article gives a new understanding of the role that early industrialization played in the abolition movement, building it from the bottom up, forging cohesion within and across communities through local institutions, rather than creating new boundaries and divides through processes of class formation.

中文翻译：

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社会结构的特征：曼彻斯特废除奴隶贸易的请愿书

本文考虑在废除奴隶贸易运动（1788-1807 年）的背景下流行的、集体组织的政治行动的问题。各种主要来源、请愿书、贸易目录、教堂记录和自建的历史地理信息系统被用来在曼彻斯特的社会结构中定位请愿者废除死刑。通过匹配和计算实验，文章强调了哪些社会结构力量导致个人通过签署请愿书来支持废奴运动。具体来说，历史上参与这场运动的聚集地，以及那些从先前的运动中成功地提出废奴主义请愿的社区的旅行商人的聚集地塑造了废奴主义的请愿——这些机构的影响在家庭关系之外仍然很重要，活跃的宗教团体和职业团体。这篇文章对早期工业化在废奴运动中所起的作用进行了新的理解，它自下而上地建立起来，通过地方机构在社区内部和社区之间建立凝聚力，而不是通过阶级形成过程创造新的界限和分裂。