Slave Trade Act 1807

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A replica of the slave ship Zong, moored near Tower Bridge in April 2007 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Slave Trade Act
The HMS Northumberland (moored on the HMS Belfast ) at the same commemorative action; it stands for today's "anti-slaving operations".

The Slave Trade Act ( An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade ; cited as 47 Geo III Sess. 1 c. 36 ) was adopted by the British Parliament on March 25, 1807 . The law abolished the slave trade in the British Empire , but not slavery itself.

The original of the legal text is in the Parliamentary Archives in London.

Slavery on English soil was not permitted by English law (this position was in litigation Somerset judgment on the slave James Somerset supported in 1772), but they remained legally the British Empire in the most part, until 1833, the Slavery Abolition Act (law abolishing the Slavery). However, this did not apply to all parts of the Empire: possessions of the British East India Company , Ceylo [n] and St. Helena were excluded.

To the prehistory

In 1787 a group of English evangelical Christians and Quakers formed the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade to work together against slavery and the slave trade. The leader of this alliance was William Wilberforce (1759-1833). As early as 1787/88, abolitionism found approval in large parts of the population. He found less approval in Liverpool : The slave market in Liverpool was considered the largest in the world and the slave trade was considered the main reason for Liverpool's boom and prosperity in the 18th century.

The Parliament of Upper Canada passed the Act Against Slavery on July 9, 1793 . At that time there were about 300 slaves in Upper Canada .

Around 1784 Wilberforce converted to evangelical Protestantism on a journey through continental Europe and began his mission to reform morality ("Abolition Society") and specifically to end the slave trade in 1787, supported by abolitionists such as Granville Sharp , Thomas Clarkson , Quakers and Methodists . On October 28, 1787, Wilberforce wrote in his diary:

"God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners."

"God Almighty gave me two great goals: the abolition of the slave trade and the reformation of morals."

- William Wilberforce

At a meeting of the House of Commons in 1789, he and his college friend and incumbent Prime Minister William Pitt proposed the abolition of the British slave trade. From then on, he repeated the introduction of the bill into parliament every year, except in the years 1800 to 1803.

Their influence was increased by the precarious situation of the government ("national unity government") under Lord Grenville (1759-1834), because the country was at war. His term as Prime Minister was short and known as the " Ministry of All the Talents ". Grenville personally fought for the Slavery Trade Act to pass the House of Lords . In the House of Commons , Foreign Secretary Charles James Fox (1749-1806) led the initiative.

The anti-slave trade movement was known as "The Saints".

After about 20 years of campaigning and fighting against slavery, Parliament adopted the Slave Trade Act after a ten-hour debate on February 24, 1807 at 4:00 am with an unexpected majority of 283 to 16 votes. On March 25, 1807, the law became law. From then on, the African slave trade was forbidden in the British sphere of influence and slave traders were treated as pirates . The internal slave trade in the non-African colonies was still allowed.

The United States of America passed a law similar to the "Slave Trade Act", the Prohibiting Importation of Slaves Act of 1807. This came into force on January 1, 1808 as a result of a stipulation in the American Constitution that guaranteed the slave trade until 1808.

Other nations

Britain used its international strength and influence to urge other nations to end their slave trade. In 1805 a British Order in Council had restricted the importation of slaves into colonies that Britain had conquered from France or the Netherlands.

This pressure resulted in a number of contracts:

  • 1810 Anglo-Portuguese treaty (Portugal restricted its trade in its colonies);
  • 1813 Anglo-Swedish treaty (Sweden renounced the slave trade);
  • 1814 First Paris Peace : France agreed with England that the slave trade was “ repugnant to the principles of natural justice ” and agreed to end the slave trade within five years;
  • 1814 Anglo-Dutch treaty: the Netherlands made the slave trade illegal;
  • 1817 Anglo-Spanish treaty: Spain agreed to end the slave trade by 1820.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: The Newsworthy Somerset Case )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / research.history.org
  2. ↑ Follow the money: investigators trace forgotten story of Britain's slave trade . theguardian.com
  3. ↑ Florence Baggett: The Slaving Capital in the Era of Abolition: Liverpool's Silent Rejection of the Slave Trade, 1787-1807 . Thesis, Victoria University of Wellington, 2013; vuw.ac.nz (PDF) p. ii
  4. ↑ Jeffrey Cox: The British missionary enterprise since 1700 . Routledge, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-415-09004-9 , pp. 90 .
  5. ^ J. Gordon Melton: Wilberforce, William (1759-1833) . pioneering voice in the abolition of slavery in the West. In: Encyclopedia of World Religions . Encyclopedia of Protestantism, No. 6 . Facts of File, New York 2005, ISBN 0-8160-5456-8 , pp. 573 (English).
  6. ↑ History: Parliament Abolishes the Slave Trade ( Memento of May 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) - Parliament and the British Slave Trade 1600–1807 (accessed on May 25, 2010)
  7. ^ A b Paul E. Lovejoy: Transformations in slavery: a history of slavery in Africa . 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press, New York 2000, ISBN 0-521-78012-8 , pp. 290 .