Everything about Slave Trade Act 1807 totally explained
The
Slave Trade Act (citation
47 Geo III Sess. 1 c. 36) was an
Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the
United Kingdom passed on
25 March,
1807, with the long title "An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade". The original act is in the
Parliamentary Archives. The act abolished the
slave trade in the
British Empire, but not
slavery itself; that had to wait for the
Slavery Abolition Act 1833. The trade began in
1562, during the reign of
Elizabeth I, when
John Hawkins led the first slaving expedition.
The
Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, which led the campaign that pushed the act through, was a group of
Evangelical Protestants allied with
Quakers and united in their opposition to slavery and the slave trade. The Quakers had long viewed slavery as immoral, a blight upon humanity. By
1807 the
abolitionist groups had a very sizable faction of like-minded members in the
United Kingdom Parliament. They controlled at their height 35-40 seats.
Known as the "saints", this alliance was led by
William Wilberforce, the most important of the anti-slavetrade campaigners. These parliamentarians had access to the legal draughtsmanship of
James Stephen, Wilberforce's brother-in-law, and were extremely dedicated. They often saw their personal battle against slavery as a divinely ordained crusade. In addition, many who were formerly neutral on the slavery question were swayed to the abolitionist side from security concerns after the successful
slave revolt leading to the
Haitian Revolution in
1804.
Their numbers were magnified by the precarious position of the current government under
Lord Grenville (his short term as Prime Minister was known as
Ministry of All the Talents). Not long after the act was passed, Grenville's government lost power to
the Duke of Portland. Despite this change, the later British governments continued to support the policy of ending the slave trade.
After the British ended their own slave trade, they felt forced by economics to press other nations to do the same, or else the British colonies would become uncompetitive. The British campaign against the slave trade by other nations was an unprecedented
foreign policy effort. The
United States abolished its
African slave trade at the same time, though it didn't attempt to abolish slavery in America.
Both the British and American laws were enacted in March 1807, the British law coming into force on
May 1,
1807 and the American on
January 1,
1808. Small trading nations that didn't have a great deal to give up, such as
Sweden, quickly followed suit, as did the
Dutch, also by then a minor player. The
Royal Navy declared that ships transporting slaves were the same as
pirates, and so ships carrying slaves were subject to destruction and any men captured were potentially subject to
execution. Enforcement of the US law was less effective, and the US government refused to comply with joint enforcement, partly because of concern over British
press gangs.
Between 1808 and 1860, the
West Africa Squadron seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard. Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against "the usurping King of
Lagos", deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African rulers.
In the 1860s,
David Livingstone's reports of atrocities within the
Arab slave trade in Africa stirred up the interest of the British public, reviving the flagging abolitionist movement.
The Royal Navy throughout the 1870s attempted to suppress "this abominable Eastern trade", at
Zanzibar in particular.
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