Abolishment Of Slavery

The late 18th and early 19th Centuries were a very important time for the abolition of slavery in Britain and the British colonies. This essay will look at the abolishment of slavery in Britain and have a look at who the supporters of the anti-slavery movements were, focusing mainly on William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, Joseph Sturge, Granville Sharp and the role British Women had played.

The abolition of slavery had begun in 1772 with Lord Mansfield’s ruling in the Somerset versus Stewart case, which had a slave in England emancipated . This was the beginning of the movement to abolish slavery in Britain. The case had stated that under English law, slavery had not been permitted, stopping slaves from being brought to England or Scotland. William Cowper, an English poet, had written in 1785:

“We have no slaves at home – Then why abroad? Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs receive our air, that moment they are free. They touch out country, and their shackles fall. That’s noble, and bespeaks a nation proud. And jealous of the blessing. Spread it then, And let it circulate through every vein .”

In 1808, a piece of legislation known as the Slave Trade Act of 1807 had been passed through parliament. This act had banned the slave trade but neglected to ban slavery itself. Efforts were made by the British Royal Navy to subdue the Atlantic slave trade, however, it failed stop it entirely. During 1808 and 1860, 150,000 Africans had been freed by the Royal navy and relocated . Eventually revolts had begun sparking up throughout the British Caribbean. The biggest of which was not until the end of 1931, with the Samuel Sharpe led revolution of Jamaica. The revolt had forced the British Parliament to form multiple enquiries w...

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...es subscribed. They were, however, not officers of these committees and not approached to sign the numerous petitions that had been organised. The irony with women’s involvement in the abolition of slavery was that women in Britain had limited rights themselves. Mary Wollstonecraft influenced by the anti-slavery debate, she frequently compared men’s control over women to the planters’ control over slaves;

“When therefore I call women slaves, I mean in a political and civil sense… ”

The strategies that had been used to combat the slave-trade, they were employed in later woman suffrages campaigns.

As this essay has shown that although there were a number of different people involved in the struggle for abolition; William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp and British women had the biggest impact on achieving the goal of the abdication of the slave trade.