Abolition of the slave trade

On the Road to Abolition - Ending the British Slave Trade

2007 marks the 200th anniversary of the 1807 Parliamentary Act to abolish the British slave trade. Slavery itself was not abolished in the British colonies until 1834, with full emancipation following in 1838. Different manifestations of slavery developed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and millions of people continue to be subjected to contemporary forms of slavery today.

The Slave Trade

British involvement in the slave trade began in 1562 when John Hawkins, a British privateer, became the first known Englishman to capture and enslave African people and transport them across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. Many other European countries were engaged in similar activities but by the 1730s Britain had become the biggest slave-trading nation in the world and from 1690 to 1807 British ships transported about 3.25 million enslaved Africans.

The majority of Africans carried in British ships were destined for the West Indies and America. They formed an integral part of the lucrative economic network that has become known as the ‘Triangular Trade’. British ships took guns, glass, metal, textiles and other British products to Africa where they were bartered for captive Africans who were then transported to the Americas. Here they laboured on plantations producing sugar, coffee, cotton and cocoa. These goods formed the cargo for the return journey to Britain. It was a massively profitable enterprise.

Abolition

From the early years of the slave trade, great resistance was offered by the enslaved but few dissenting European or American voices were raised until the late eighteenth century. In Britain, objections to the trade emerged first amongst the Quakers and other non-conformist church groups. The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed in 1787 and included the prominent campaigners Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp. The first Bill to abolish the slave trade was introduced to Parliament in 1791. Like many subsequent Bills it was rejected, facing fierce opposition from plantation owners, merchants, investors, industrialists and other people who had profited from slavery. But the Abolitionists skillfully mobilised public opinion, organising mass petitions and large-scale boycotts of sugar and other goods associated with the trade.

A vital component of the anti-slavery movement was the campaigning of former enslaved people living in Britain. Particularly significant were Ignatius Sancho, who denounced the trade in his Letters, and Olaudah Equiano and Ouobna Ottobah Cugoano, who both published books that documented in detail the violence and degradation inflicted upon Africans during transportation and on the plantations. Undermining the slave trade and slavery from within was the repeated resistance of the enslaved Africans themselves, in the form of uprisings, rebellions, escapes and non-cooperation.

Aftermath

On 25th March 1807 the British Parliament finally passed an Act abolishing the transatlantic slave trade to the British colonies. This ended the legal transportation of Africans across the Atlantic on British ships, but it did not stop British investment in the slave trade or the building of slave ships in British dockyards. Nor did it stop other countries trading or end the institution or practice of slavery. Indeed a quarter of all Africans who were enslaved between 1500 and 1870 were transported across the Atlantic after 1807. The impact and legacy of the slave trade is impossible to quantify. It led to unprecedented forms of cruelty and subjugation and the development of long-lasting forms of racism and inequality. Many commentators regard the forced removal of vast numbers of young Africans as having played a crucial role in limiting prosperity and industrial growth in parts of West Africa. The effects of this are still present today.