200 years ago tommorow the British Empire made it illegal to own slaves.

[Swede]

That's not that long ago.

[theoldman]

1. So when are they going to stop having slaves in the former

empire? Maybe 200 years from now.

[malaise]

2. That was only in Britain

the said Brits kept slaves in the Caribbean until 1834 and then announced a four year apprenticeship until 1838. Then they everything they could (passed a whole pile of laws denying property rights, introducing vagrancy acts etc, built prisons) to keep our ancestors on their plantations and dragged hundreds of thousands of Indians from India as indentured labourers.

And how different is what they're doing in Iraq? Imperialists will never fool me or mine again.

[JohnyCanuck]

3. It was only the slave trade, ie transportation of slaves from Africa

that was abolished in 1807. Slavery itself wasn't abolished for another 26 years.

The slave trade was deeply embedded in the economies of England, the Americas, and much of Europe; many merchants, ship owners, bankers, and politicians feared an economic collapse if the slave trade were abolished. But others, particularly eyewitnesses of the slave trade, were so appalled that they resolved to put a stop to it. Leading this crusade was William Wilberforce (1759-1833), a Member of Parliament whose evangelical convictions made him an exemplar of humanitarianism. Wilberforce and a cadre of like-minded reformers worked tirelessly to raise public awareness of the cruelties of the trade and to pressure Parliament for reforms. After years of setbacks and defeats, the slave trade was abolished in the British Empire in 1807. It took 26 more years of agitation to abolish slavery within the British Empire. In the U.S., the movement to end slavery, abolitionism, also involved many Christian activists.

http://demo.lutherproductions.com/historytutor/basic/modern/genknow/end-slavery.htm

After the passing of Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 1807, British captains who were caught continuing the trade were fined £100 for every slave found on board. However, this law did not stop the British slave trade. If slave-ships were in danger of being captured by the British navy, captains often reduced the fines they had to pay by ordering the slaves to be thrown into the sea.

Some people involved in the anti-slave trade campaign argued that the only way to end the suffering of the slaves was to make slavery illegal. A new Anti-Slavery Society was formed in 1823. Members included Thomas Clarkson, Henry Brougham, William Wilberforce, Thomas Fowell Buxton, Elizabeth Heyrick, Mary Lloyd, Jane Smeal, Elizabeth Pease and Anne Knight).

Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833. This act gave all slaves in the British Empire their freedom. The British government paid compensation to the slave owners. The amount that the plantation owners received depended on the number of slaves that they had. For example, the Bishop of Exeter's 665 slaves resulted in him receiving £12,700.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Lslavery33.htm

[regnaD kciN]

4. Absolutely correct...

...and a needed corrective to the Hollywood revisionism of Amazing Grace, which makes the abolition of the slave trade into the high point of the fight for emancipation in order to provide a cliched "happy ending" to the movie. (In truth, Wilberforce carried on his fight against slavery, but died an old man several months before the final Slavery Abolition Act passed.)