Abolition of the slave trade

About the bicentenary

The enslavement of African people by Europeans began in the 1500s. Traders would export manufactured good to Africa where they were exchanged for slaves from African merchants. This trade saw the forced removal of up to 25 million Africans who were transported across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and the Americas and sold for huge profits. This part of their journey is known as the 'middle passage'.

More than a million Africans died during this part of the journey as hundreds of men, woman and children were kept in inhumane conditions on board the ships. Many slaves captured also died during the long journey from their villages in land to the coast where they were kept in forts. Some were kept in terrible conditions for months prior to being transferred to the ships.

By the end of the 18th Century Britain dominated the trade with around 150 slave ships leaving Liverpool, Bristol and London each year.

Many merchants in Britain, America and Europe profited from the trade, and the evidence can still be seen to day, particularly in Liverpool, Bristol and London. Grand houses and businesses such as banks can still be traced back to the slave trade.

The movement against slavery began in the late 18th Century.

Slave uprisings in the Caribbean as well as campaigned held here in Britain such as the publication of the slave narratives from writers such as Olaudah Equiano helped to change public perceptions of slavery.

British MP William Wilberforce. Campaigned vociferously against the trade for 35 years and is often given credit for the parliamentary act banning it in 1807.

While the 1807 act made slave trading illegal on paper, it took a further 60 years of dedicated Foreign Office diplomacy and Royal Navy enforcement to finally eradicate it.