Chapter 11 of 18 · 4'17"
A pro-slavery MP argues that the Africans don't object and that ordinary Britons don't care. The abolitionists answer with a petition signed by more than 390,000 people. When the other side tries to stall by checking the signatures, the reply becomes the line of the scene: "you will not drown out the voice of the people."
❝ Monologue · 5 lines A Witty Put-Down Over Weak Arguments
❝ Monologue · 6 lines You Won't Drown Out the Voice of the People
In the House, a member for Liverpool defends the slave trade, claiming the slaves are comfortable and the British public doesn't care. The abolitionists respond by presenting a petition with over 390,000 signatures calling for the trade to end. The debate turns bitter as one side tries to delay and the other refuses to be shouted down.
This is the abolitionists turning the charge of radicalism back on the House. The Liverpool MP insists there is "no evidence that the Africans themselves have any objection to the trade," so they produce evidence of a different kind: a petition signed by hundreds of thousands of ordinary people. His complaint that Britain should not be "governed by the rule of the mob" is answered with the line the whole chapter is named for — "No matter how loud you shout, you will not drown out the voice of the people." The debate also shows how the other side fights: not by defending slavery on the merits, but by asking for time to examine the signatures, a delay the abolitionists call "very provoking." Public opinion is the new weapon, and the House doesn't know what to do with it.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“No matter how loud you shout, you will not drown out the voice of the people!”
It turns volume into a losing argument, so the louder he shouts the smaller his case looks.
Formal
“I do feel that if my honourable friend continues to scrape the bottom of the barrel for objections, he is in danger of getting splinters under his fingernails.”
He takes his opponent's own image one step further and makes the digging physically painful.
Formal
“Winds blow ships from Africa to the Indies naturally, as if the route were blessed by God.”
He dresses up a human trade as divine weather, and the calm phrasing is the whole trick.
Formal
“That roll of paper reeks of rebellion!”
It calls a petition seditious by smell, a vivid smear instead of an argument.
Informal
Winds blow ships from Africa to the Indies naturally, as if the route were blessed by God. Another argument in defence of the trade is that the Newfoundland fishing industry is kept afloat by the fact that slaves in the West Indies consume that part of the fish which is fit for no other consumption. I do feel that if my honourable friend continues to scrape the bottom of the barrel for objections, he is in danger of getting splinters under his fingernails. Now, if I may continue with my argument... As representative of the great and flourishing commercial town of Liverpool, I must once again remind the House that we have no evidence that the Africans themselves have any objection to the trade.
My honourable friend, the member for Liverpool, seeks evidence of people's concern. In the past year, I and my itinerant clergymen friends have been gathering just such evidence. We have taken a petition calling for the abolition of the slave trade to all the great cities of this country. It has been signed by over 390,000 people. However, this petition is not yet complete. There is one more person who wishes to add his name.
Up next · 12a wave of good intentionsThe scene: Pitt Warns a Friend Over CardsA petition calling for the abolition of the slave trade, taken to Britain's major cities and signed by more than 390,000 people.
He represents a port city that profits from the trade. He claims the slaves are comfortable and that ordinary Britons don't care about slavery.
It means to use up your good options and settle for the worst ones. Here it mocks an MP for hunting for weak objections to abolition.
They fear giving ordinary people political power. A mass petition looks like mob rule to them, so they call it dangerous and try to delay.
