This article refines our understanding of abolitionism as “the first modern social movement” through a microhistory of abolitionism in an eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British town. Examining requisitions, which collected signatures calling on a mayor to convene public meetings to launch parliamentary petitions or other associational activities, the article shows how antislavery mobilization in Plymouth grew amongst a multiplying variety of religious, political, cultural, and economic institutions. Through a prosopography of those initiating antislavery petitions, an analysis of the other requisitions they supported, and qualitative evidence from leading abolitionists’ personal papers, the article details the ways local leaders raised petitions for a national campaign. Civic and religious dynamism at this local level facilitated new forms of contentious mobilization on national and imperial issues. The article therefore directs causal attention to those socioeconomic changes that underpinned the associational cultures of abolitionism.

中文翻译：

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英国反奴隶制请愿的微观历史

本文通过 18 世纪和 19 世纪英国小镇的废奴主义微观历史，提炼了我们对废奴主义作为“第一次现代社会运动”的理解。检查征用书，收集签名呼吁市长召开公开会议以发起议会请愿或其他协会活动，文章展示了普利茅斯的反奴隶制动员如何在各种宗教、政治、文化和经济机构中发展壮大。通过对那些发起反奴隶制请愿的人进行剖析，分析他们支持的其他申请，以及主要废奴主义者个人文件的定性证据，文章详细介绍了地方领导人为全国运动提出请愿的方式。地方层面的公民和宗教活力促进了对国家和帝国问题的新形式的有争议的动员。因此，本文将因果性的注意力转向那些支撑废奴主义协会文化的社会经济变化。