British Abolition of the Slave Trade
On 25 March 1807, the Slave Trade Act received royal assent in Britain, prohibiting British subjects from participating in the slave trade. The act was the culmination of two decades of campaigning by the abolitionist movement, led by William Wilberforce in Parliament and supported by Quakers, Evangelicals, and many ordinary citizens. It did not free enslaved people already held in British colonies — that came with the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 — but it made the trading of enslaved persons illegal throughout the British Empire. Britain established the West Africa Squadron of the Royal Navy to enforce the ban and intercept slave ships of other nations. Between 1807 and 1860, the Squadron seized approximately 1,600 ships and freed 150,000 Africans. At the Congress of Vienna (1814–15), Britain pressed successfully for a declaration against the slave trade, though without fixed timelines for other nations. The act marked a turning point: the world's largest maritime empire, which had profited enormously from the slave trade, was now its principal international enforcer against it.
- Year: 1807 CE
- Category: Political
