Slavery, as defined formally, has been abolished, or has it? This was after a year of leap years, an interminably long time of murderous exploitation.
Why did the Atlantic slavery finally end? There were slightly differing circumstances for each slaving nation. Asa result, the reasons may differ slightly. For now, let’s confine ourselves to the leading European slaver, Britain.
Some Terms to Remember Regarding Britain.
Slave Trade Abolition Act of 1807
Slavery Abolition Act of 1833
Slavery Compensation Act of 1837
Now, let’s get a few facts right. The abolition of the slave trade did not mean the end of owning of slaves; nope. Second our jailers and torturers used a nail to remove another nail. Meaning, they stopped slavery — all the while patting themselves on the back with righteous self-praise — and replaced it with an equally pernicious exploitative evil caper, colonialism.
In Britain, the slave trade ended in 1807 after a bill, The Slave Trade Abolition Act, was passed by the British Parliament. This bill was only passed after a month of Sundays. This bill was pushed vigorously in the British parliament by a gent called William Wilberforce. Wilberforce had numerous supporting actors, among them a lawyer called James Stephens, Quakers like William Allen, the Manchester Evangelicals, the Clapham Sect Evangelicals, and the Thomas Clarkson/Granville Sharp group and many antislavery societies.
However, slave owners in British colonies could still own slaves until 1833, when the Slavery Abolition Act was passed by Parliament. The Act was only effected in 1834. The Act, notwithstanding, the slaves remained slaves for another 4 years. This was because the slave owners were given 4 years to remove the slaves’ chains and nominally set their chattels free. These slave chains were repurposed as prison bars. The slave owners in British colonies were then given compensation by the British Government.
Reasons Why the British Atlantic Slave Trade was Abolished
There was no single main reason as many developments came together to finally break the slave camel’s back.
- It’s the Economy, Stupid!
Economic considerations on how slavery was performing is very important in understanding why slavery was halted by the British. As industrial capitalism grew, some argued that free labour was more efficient and profitable than slave labour, leading to pressure to transition away from slavery. As more machines were invented that could replace human labour, indeed slaves were becoming superfluous. Even the famous capitalist, Adam Smith, believed that slave labour was inimical to economic growth. The middle classes took on those who owned slaves because for them, slavery was not helping. In the Caribbean, many studies indicate that slavery was inefficient and unprofitable by the 1830s. This decline occurred between 1807 — when the colonies were viable —and 1833 when the colonies’ economies went south. Eventually, the British Government wised up to the fact that to get the full effect of the industrialisation gale-force winds blowing, they had to unfurl all the sails. The slaves were knots on the ropes tying up some sails. The British saw the writing on the wall and decided to jump before they could be pushed.
- Increasing Slave Revolts
The ones about to push the British off the Cliffs of Dover were the slaves. There was an ever-increasing number of often very violent and murderous slave revolts in the British slave colonies as well as in the Americas. These revolts led to thousands of deaths of both colonists and slaves. As the slaving years rolled by, the planning and execution of the slave revolts evolved and improved and thus scared the pants off the slaving nations. The successful uprising in Haiti was the canary that showed what enslaved people were capable of. Between 1807 and 1833, three of Britain’s most valuable Caribbean colonies all experienced violent slave uprisings.
The evil axis of slaving nations was clearly rattled, very badly rattled by these uprisings. The other slaving nations feared the same as the slaves on most islands outnumbered the whites by about twenty to one. So, there was a clear and present danger that better-organised rebellions were inevitable, and others, in addition to Haiti, would succeed.
The British decided that discretion was the better part of valour. They decided that better to dismantle slavery on their terms and replace it with colonialism rather than lose their colonies to slaves, a-la-Haiti style.
- Moral Outrage by the Public
As the printing and distribution of information became cheaper and levels of illiteracy declined more ordinary Brits became aware of just how evil slavery was and ipso facto how evil their vaunted society had become. Some started abolition societies and exerted pressure by distributing pamphlets showing how slaves travelled on slave ships. Others held rallies and followed up with activities like boycotting sugar from slave plantations. But the abolition happened only when the British Government had done its math, analysed the sound coming from the cashbox, and weighed all the pros and cons. Only then did they pass legislation abolishing slavery.
- Pressure from Religious Groups
From day one, the Quakers, a religious order that strongly believed in equality condemned slavery. Some protestant churches also grew a spine and took on the Catholic and Anglican Churches that actively supported, encouraged and actually owned slaves and slave plantations. These religious groups swayed public opinion against slavery and helped change the tide.
- Changing Social Political Climate
The British society was changing and so were the lawmakers who became members of parliament. Instead of only landed gentry, many with slavery dealings, ordinary Brits became members of parliament. Some of these MPs had seen slavery first hand and were able to paint the true awful picture to other naive parliamentarians. Enlightened MPs were able to talk of equal rights and advantages of free labour.
6 Compensation. — Heads I Win, Tails You Lose
The British decided to compensate the criminals and not the victims, after the Slavery Compensation Act of 1837 was passed. This was, and still is, a blatant sin in their Bible. The argument was that without the promise of compensation for slaveholders, an abolition bill would not have received enough support to pass in parliament. This was because a lot of parliamentarians were slave holders or beneficiaries. Predictably they voted to line their own pockets. £20 million or about £3 to £30 billion at today’s rate (depending on which method used to calculate) was paid out to approximately 47,000 claimants. To the 700,000 slaves, zilch.
The British government arranged a huge loan to pay slaveholders, and this loan was only fully paid off in 2015, that’s right 2015. The Brits of that time and their descendants, the freed slaves and their descendants in all British territories and citizens in all British colonies were taxed to pay off this loan. Meaning, as a colony of Northern Rhodesia, we were forced to pay part of that £20 million plus interest to the people who enslaved our people. That has left a very bad taste in my mouth.
- International Anti-Slavery Movements:
The formation of international organizations and treaties helped coordinate efforts to end the slave trade globally.
- The West African Protection Squadron
The West African Protection Squadron was formed by the British in 1819 to patrol the African Atlantic coast to enforce the ban on the slave trade. The British put in a considerable amount of effort and resources in ships, men (seamen and on-land administrators), and funds to patrol the west coast of Africa, when they changed from poachers to gamekeepers in 1807.
The Lowdown
British historians have for decades heaped praises on how their country stood tall morally and physically and stopped slavery and forced other international players to do the same. This was at a considerable cost in both monies and lost British sailors of the British West African Protection Squadron. Tell me, why should I, as an African, praise a thief that took 3 million of my people into slavery, caused the deaths of 3 million more, and at today’s rates made trillions of dollars that made it into a superpower? Then this thief spends a few million pounds and loses 2,000 of its citizens closing the slave faucet it had opened. All these ‘’selfless’’ activities are so that the thief can morph slavery into an exploitative colonialism. Then someone expects that I, the victim, should be grateful? That’s bullocks!
Finally, as a reminder let’s not forget that the opponents of abolition were many. The slave traders and the plantation owners employed lobbying agents to defend them in the metropoles. In Britain, these agents included members of the two houses of the British Parliament.
