Why Was Slavery Abolished In The British Empire In 1833

In 1833, slavery was abolished in the British Empire after years of conflict and the hard work of abolitionists in London. Around the era of slavery more people were for it than against it. Even though there were too less people against it, they were still stronger believers. In this essay I will be discussing the persuasive arguments and events that took place to cause the abolition of slavery in the British Empire by 1833. The three causes were what the Abolitionists did, actions took by the slaves and the economic reasons.

The White Campaigners The Abolitionists Parliament passed on the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833. The act gave all slaves in the British Empire their freedom. It was one of the great issues of the 19th century. By 1833 the final stages of the Abolition by Britain had been enacted. Until recently it was believed that white campaigners in England had brought an end to slavery, most in the higher classes. These people like Granville Sharp or William Wilberforce, both became well-known for their campaigning against slavery. His opinion changed when he saw Jonathon Strong, a young slave brought to Britain and beaten by his owner. He had run away and had injuries such as a swollen head, nearly blind and could hardly walk. Granville Sharp helped this boy but he was later seen by his owner and captured, he was at threat of being sent back to Jamaica. However, Sharp fought in court and won the case which meant the boy was freed. After this Granville Sharp carried on and fought many of these cases on behalf of black people and won most of them. In 1797 twelve men formed a group to fight for abolition of slavery. Wilberforce was the best-known and was an MP who made speeches in Parliament against the slave trade and presented the huge petitions that had been collected. It was said to be these campaigners who finally had success in 1807. These middle-class campaigners and many more like them were originally alleged to be the reason slavery was abolished. The Abolitionists faced all kinds of tasks: Mammoth tasks, put a blow in the economy and parliament people would have been plantation owners. They gained the support of powerful people in Britain for example MP's a source tells us this," Pm made a speech in 1972 saying he knew of no evil worse than slave," this suggests that the Abolitionists pushed hard in trying to get their perspectives across; in addition to that this implies that their was a huge amount of persuasion going on inside parliament to cause MP's to change their view about slavery. Many of the Abolitionists were the slaves that had been set free, bought there freedom for example source 1 says, "Olaudah Equiano wrote the story of his life as a slave," this illustrates the idea that giving personal biography's made the British public empathize more and feel sympathy and guilt because most of them had slaves and treated them with no humane respect or loyalty. Over several amount of years British citizens started to reconsider there opinion on slavery and this is through number of meetings, talks,petitions and strikes. This reason is linked with the actual slaves because most of the Abolitionists were black slaves who had been set free or bought there freedom.

One factor which is commonly mentioned is that the black slaves, both in Britain and the West Indies, were the ones who brought an end to slavery, by running away and rebelling they made it impossible for slavery to continue. It was normal for slaves to run away and although some were taken to court by their owner, many owners felt it was too much trouble chasing escaped slaves and instead they were free. Slaves were also demanding to be treated like ordinary servants and receive wages. By 1800, there were slaves being sold in Britain and being taken against their will to the West Indies, but most black people in Britain were free through their own efforts. Some slaves rebelled as source 3 shows us, " slaves on the island of St Dominique set fire the sugar cane," this portrays the image that if they started being more aggressive towards the plantation owners business then they would be scared and try to make a treaty with them. This treaty would have rules like payment must be allowed or they won't work and many other rules and regulations to make it fair on the slaves working extremely hard for 15 hours or more labor. There were other methods in which slaves used against their owners so they would be freed or payed these were, act ill, work less hard, sabotage crops, act stupid also pretend they don't know English even though they have been in that plantation area or 10 years or more; this would create the owner a huge cost in money and they would loose all they're profit. They would have no choice to either free the slaves or pay them. This second reason links in with the economy problems