the slave trade ended in the british colony of mauritius on 1 february 1835.
the slave trade ended in the british colony of mauritius on 1 february 1835.
when did the slave trade end in the british colony of mauritius?
1 february 1835
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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 atlantic slave trade. castlereagh switched his position and became a strong supporter of the movement. britain arranged treaties with portugal, sweden and denmark, 1810-1814, whereby they agreed to 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; the freed slaves were sent to freedom in a new british colony of sierra leone. 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 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 trade proved successful.
robert stewart, viscount castlereagh