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• From the 1770s in Britain, a movement developed to bring the slave trade to an end. This is known as the abolitionist movement.
• The work of politicians, ordinary workers, women and the testimonies of formerly enslaved people all contributed to the British abolitionist movement.
• In 1807, the British Parliament passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. This ended the buying and selling of enslaved people within the British Empire, but it did not protect those already enslaved. Many enslavers continued to trade illegally.
• Hundreds of thousands of people remained enslaved. It took a further 30 years of campaigning before slavery was abolished in most British colonies.

The campaign to abolish the slave trade began in the late 1700s. Several key groups and individuals were involved in the public campaign.

Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp were leading abolitionists who fought to end slavery. In 1787, they established the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, whose purpose was to campaign for the slave trade to be brought to an end.

William Wilberforce was a member of parliament, and another key figure in the abolitionist movement. Although his proposals met with fierce resistance, from 1789 Wilberforce began to introduce anti-slavery motions in Parliament. He continued to do so until 1807, when the British Parliament introduced the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act.

Nine of the twelve members of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade were Quakers, formerly known as the Society of Friends. The Quaker Church strongly opposed the slave trade in Britain and America. In 1783, the London Society of Friends sent a petition against the slave trade to the British Parliament.

Working-class people in Britain also played a key role in calling for abolition. Despite benefiting from economic links to the slave trade, many workers in the port cities of Liverpool and Bristol signed petitions that were presented to Parliament. Over 500 petitions, with a combined total of around 390,000 signatures, were submitted in support of Wilberforce’s abolition bill in 1792.

Enslaved people found ways to demonstrate their resistance. The successful revolts by enslaved people in Barbados, Jamaica and Demerara shocked the British government. They knew that if enslaved people were not emancipated, large scale rebellions would continue. In 1838, enslaved people were finally emancipated after many years of fighting for their freedom.

The following people were all formerly enslaved. They played a key role in the British abolitionist movement by forming societies, sharing their stories and petitioning Parliament.

1772: The Somerset Case

James Somerset had been enslaved as a young man and taken to Virginia. He was bought and sent to London in the 1770s, but he escaped after two years. He was captured again and forced onto a ship that was heading for the Caribbean.

Somerset asked for the help of Granville Sharp. Sharp used Somerset’s situation to test the rights of enslaved people in Britain. He argued that no enslaved person in England could be forcibly moved and resold. In 1772, the judge, Lord Mansfield ruled that ‘no master ever was allowed here (England) to take a slave by force to be sold abroadBecause he deserted from his service, therefore the man must be discharged’.

In this landmark case, James Somerset was granted his freedom and other enslaved people in Britain could not be shipped back to the Caribbean. However, this did not result in emancipation. It wasn’t until 1807 that enslaved people in Britain were granted their freedom.

1781: The Zong Case

The Zong was an overcrowded ship that carried enslaved Africans to the Americas in 1781.

Due to a navigational error, the ship had to spend an additional three days at sea.

With supplies and water running out, the crew murdered 131 enslaved people by throwing them overboard. If they had died onboard the ship, the crew would not have been able to make an insurance claim for compensation. The case was used by abolitionists such as Olaudah Equiano and Thomas Clarkson in order to highlight the extreme brutality of the traders in enslaved people.

1787: Ottobah Cugoano shares his experiences of enslavement

In 1787, Ottobah Cugoano, published his essay Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evils of Slavery. This was the first published critique of the slave trade by an African person. Cugoano’s essay served as a powerful testament to the horrors of enslavement.

1780s: Primary evidence

In 1789, the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade persuaded William Wilberforce to represent them in Parliament. Thomas Clarkson collected information for the committee to present to Parliament and the public. He travelled around Britain, making visits to the ports of Liverpool and Bristol, gathering evidence about the slave trade from eyewitnesses, including from sailors who had worked on slave trading ships.

1789: Olaudah Equiano's autobiography

In 1789, Equiano published his autobiography, which detailed his experiences of enslavement. Equiano embarked on a lecture tour through Ireland, Scotland and England to share his story.

1792: Petitions to Parliament

In 1792, over 519 petitions with thousands of signatures were handed to Parliament. Alongside these petitions, William Wilberforce presented a bill for the abolition of the slave trade every year, from 1789 to 1807.

1791 - 1792: Sugar boycotts

From 1791 - 1792, 300,000 people, most of whom were women, became involved in the boycotting of sugar and other goods produced using enslaved labour. One of the women involved in the boycotts was Hannah Moore, a passionate anti-slavery campaigner from Bristol who encouraged other women to join the abolitionist movement. This led to a dramatic decrease in sugar sales, directly affecting the profits of plantation owners.

1804: Haiti becomes a republic

In 1791, a rebellion against enslavement occurred in the French colony of Saint-Domingue. In 1804, Saint-Domingue became the independent Republic of Haiti. Those who used the labour of enslaved people became afraid that rebellions might start to happen more often. These fears became a factor in the eventual decision to abolish the slave trade.

After over twenty years of campaigning, the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1807. The Act made it illegal to buy and sell enslaved people throughout the British colonies.

However, while the act abolished the trade in enslaved people, it did not end the use of enslaved labour across the British Empire. Plantation owners were still able to use their existing enslaved labour force.

This meant that some people in the Caribbean, and elsewhere in the British Empire, remained enslaved.

While the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was a significant milestone, it did little for the thousands of people still enslaved across the British Empire. Alongside the abolitionist movement in Britain, it was the resistance of enslaved people that was a very significant factor in their emancipation.

Between 1675 and 1797 there were hundreds of rebellions by enslaved people in the Americas.

The Fédon's rebellion began in 1795 on the island of Grenada. Julien Fédon, a free man, wanted to end both slavery and British rule in Grenada. He led a group of 100 free people who attacked cities in Grenada, burning properties and looting. The rebellion grew over time and lasted around 15 months. By the end of the fighting, in June 1796, Fédon was defeated and approximately 7000 enslaved people had died. 50 rebels were captured, with 30 executed for treason.

In 1815, a rumour had swept through Barbados that the governor would soon provide the enslaved population with papers to emancipate them. This didn’t happen. In 1816, a man named Bussa led 400 men to fight for their freedom. In the aftermath, 300 enslaved people were taken to Bridgetown for trial. 144 were executed, and 132 sent to other islands for fear that they might begin another rebellion on Barbados.

In 1831, workers from plantations in Jamaica began to strike. During the Christmas Rebellion, also known as the Baptist War, enslaved people refused to work. They hoped that it would force the plantation owners to pay them or risk the spoiling of their sugar crops. It developed into an open rebellion, led by Sam Sharpe.

It is estimated that around 60,000 enslaved people rose up across 200 plantations. It took 11 days for the British Forces to suppress the uprising. In the aftermath, the Jamaican colonial government and the leaders of Jamaica brutally punished those involved. Sam Sharpe was publicly executed, along with 138 others. This violence and brutality shocked some in Britain, who questioned the reaction of the Governor of Jamaica.

The abolition of enslavement in the British Empire was not wholly achieved until the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. Protecting profit remained a crucial factor in ending enslaved labour in the colonies. When Britain abolished the practice of enslavement, plantation owners across the British Empire received a share of £20 million, around £17 billion in today's money, in compensation. In contrast, the newly emancipated people received no compensation and were forced into a new apprenticeship scheme, which tied them to their plantations for up to six further years.

In reality, little had changed for enslaved people. They were still expected to work ten-hour days, and punishments such as flogging were still allowed. These apprenticeships were ended in 1838, when emancipation was finally achieved. Across the Caribbean, enslaved people held ceremonies, with some even holding funerals to try to bury the memories of enslavement.