the slave trade ended in britain in 1776.
the slave trade ended in britain in 1776.
when did the slave trade end in britain?
1776
abolitionist opinion in britain was strong enough in 1807 to abolish the slave trade in all british possessions, although slavery itself persisted in the colonies until 1833. abolitionists after 1807 focused on international agreements to abolish the slave trade. foreign minister castlereagh switched his position and became a strong supporter of the movement. britain arrange treaties with portugal sweden and denmark, 1810-1814, whereby they agreed to end or restrict their trading. these were preliminary to the congress of vienna negotiations that castlereagh dominated and which resulted in a general declaration condemning the slave trade. the problem was that the treaties and declarations were hard to enforce, given the very high profits available to private interests. as foreign minister, castlereagh cooperated with senior officials to use the royal navy to detect and capture slave ships. he used diplomacy to make search and seize agreements with all the government whose ships were trading. there was serious friction with the united states, where the southern slave interest was politically powerful. washington recoiled at british policing of the high seas. spain france and portugal also relied on the international slave trade to supply their colonial plantations. as more and more diplomatic arrangements were made by castlereagh, the owners of slave ships started flying false flags of nations that had not agreed, especially the united states. it was illegal under american law for american ships to engage in the slave trade, but the idea of britain enforcing american laws was unacceptable to washington. lord palmerston and other british foreign ministers continued the castlereagh policies. eventually, in 1842 in 1845, an arrangement was reached between london and washington. with the arrival of a staunchly anti-slavery government in washington in 1861, the atlantic slave trade was doomed. in the long run, castlereagh's strategy on how to stifle the slave trade proved successful.
atlantic slave trade
william wilberforce was a driving force in the british parliament in the fight against the slave trade in the british empire. on 22 february 1807, the house of commons passed a motion 283 votes to 16 to abolish the atlantic slave trade. at the same time, although without mutual consultation, the united states abolished the slave trade the same year, but not its internal slave trade which became the dominant character in american slavery until the 1860s. in 1805 the british order-in-council had restricted the importation of slaves into colonies that had been captured from france and the netherlands. britain continued to press other nations to end its trade; in 1810 an anglo-portuguese treaty was signed whereby portugal agreed to restrict its trade into its colonies; an 1813 anglo-swedish treaty whereby sweden outlawed its slave trade; the treaty of paris 1814 where france agreed with britain that the trade is "repugnant to the principles of natural justice" and agreed to abolish the slave trade in five years; the 1814 anglo-netherlands treaty where the dutch outlawed its slave trade.
atlantic slave trade