Abolition of Slavery: Instrumental People to End of Slave Trade

Join us as we delve into the abolition of slavery and slave trade, looking at the key People who were instrumental to this humanitarian exercise.

William Wilberforce

• Was a British politician who campaigned against slavery and the slave trade in the British Empire.
• He was a humanitarian who was strongly opposed to slavery and the slave trade.
• William Wilberforce and other humanitarians believed that all people regardless of colour were equal and that they were all created in the image of God. They condemned the slave trade as evil and unchristian and began to campaign against it.
• These campaigns led to the abolition of slavery and the slave trade

Stages of the abolition of slavery in Britain

Somerset Case of 1772

This court case was the first step in the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. Granville Sharpe a leading British humanitarian defended a slave who had escape from his owner. This led to the chief judge in Britain stating that slavery was so odious that it could only be stopped by law and there was no such law in England.

Society for Effecting the Abolition of slave trade (1787)

This society was formed to apply pressure on the British government through a mass campaign to ban the slave trade.

Anti-slavery Trade act of 1807

The British parliament passed a law that banned the slave trade. This meant that British ships were banned from carrying slaves. The British navy enforced this ban on the slave trade.

Emancipation act of 1833

with this law slavery it was finally abolished in the British Empire. This meant that slaves had to be freed in Britain and all its colonies

Abraham Lincoln

Abolishing slavery even proved to be harder to achieve in the USA than in Britain and other countries such as France. It took a civil war before abolishing could be achieved in the USA. The person who played a leading role in the abolition of slavery in the USA was President Abraham Lincoln.

Slave states and Free states

In the early 1800s views in the USA were divided between those of the slave states in the south and Free states in the North where slavery had already been abolished.

Abolition campaign in the USA

By the 1830s white people and freed slaves in the North started abolition campaign. They believed that slavery was against their Christian faith and the founding principles of the United States.

Civil war between North and south

Abraham Lincoln was elected as president of the United States in 1860. His strong anti-slavery views were not acceptable to the southern states. Eleven southern states broke away from the United States following his election. The breakaway by the southern states led to the civil war between the south and north.

Emancipation proclamation (1863) and Thirteenth Amendment (1865)

In January 1863 during the civil war president Abraham Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation. This was an official statement that declared all enslaved people in the south free. The proclamation made slavery in the United States of America illegal. This ensured that when the Northern states won the civil war it would end slavery in the south.

In December 1865 (eight months after the end of the civil war), the Thirteenth Amendment was formerly adopted by the parliament of the USA. This amendment changed the Constitution of the USA to state that slavery would no longer exist within the United States.

Other factors that helped in the abolition of slavery

Slavery was finally abolished because of:

• High deaths rate of sailors in the English Navy who were enforcing the ban on the slave trade made the British government to finally abolish slavery because they needed men to fight in the war against France.
• Success of slave revolts: places such as Barbados and saint Dominguez, this posed a threat to European and American governments
• Industrial revolution: slaves were replaced by machines which did work faster. This made slave become a social nuisance as they turned to petty crimes.

1. Britain established Freetown in Sierra Leone to resettle freed slaves
2. The Americans resettled free slaves in Liberia.