Editing Abolitionism (section)

===British Empire===
[[File:Abolition of Slavery The Glorious 1st of August 1838.jpg|thumb|A poster advertising a special chapel service to celebrate the Abolition of Slavery in 1838]]
Prior to the [[American Revolution]], there were few significant initiatives in the American colonies that led to the abolitionist movement. Some Quakers were active. [[Benjamin Kent]] was the lawyer who took on most of the cases of slaves suing their masters for personal illegal enslavement. He was the first lawyer to successfully establish a slave's freedom.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blanck |first1=Emily |title=Forging an American Law of Slavery in Revolutionary South Carolina and Massachusetts |date=2014 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |isbn=9780-820338644 |page=35 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8e-wBAAAQBAJ}}</ref> In addition, Brigadier General [[Samuel Birch (military officer)|Samuel Birch]] created the ''[[Book of Negroes]]'', to establish which slaves were free after the war.

In 1783, an anti-slavery movement began among the British public to end slavery throughout the British Empire.

[[File:Wilberforce john rising.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[William Wilberforce]] (1759–1833), politician and philanthropist who was a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade]]
After the formation of the [[Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade]] in 1787, [[William Wilberforce]] led the cause of abolition through the parliamentary campaign. [[Thomas Clarkson]] became the group's most prominent researcher, gathering vast amounts of data on the trade. One aspect of abolitionism during this period was the effective use of images such as the famous [[Josiah Wedgwood]] "[[Josiah Wedgwood#Abolitionism|Am I Not A Man and a Brother?]]" anti-slavery medallion of 1787. Clarkson described the medallion as "promoting the cause of justice, humanity and freedom".<ref>{{cite web
 |title=Wedgwood
 |url=http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REwedgwood.htm
 |access-date=12 August 2015
 |quote=Thomas Clarkson wrote of the medallion; promoting the cause of justice, humanity and freedom.
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090708094050/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REwedgwood.htm
 |archive-date=8 July 2009
}}</ref><ref>[[Elizabeth McGrath (art historian)|Elizabeth McGrath]] and [[Jean Michel Massing]] (eds), ''The Slave in European Art: From Renaissance Trophy to Abolitionist Emblem'', London, 2012.</ref> The 1792 Slave Trade Bill passed the House of Commons mangled and mutilated by the modifications and amendments of [[William Pitt the Younger|Pitt]], it lay for years, in the House of Lords.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4wcxAQAAMAAJ|title=Parliamentary History|year=1817|page=1293|publisher=Corbett}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NxtDAAAAcAAJ|title=Journal of the House of Lords|year=1790|page=391 to 738|publisher=H.M. Stationery Office 1790}}</ref> Biographer [[William Hague]] considers the unfinished abolition of the slave trade to be Pitt's greatest failure.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2005|loc=p. 589}}</ref> The [[Slave Trade Act 1807]] was passed by the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|British Parliament]] on 25 March 1807, making the slave trade illegal throughout the British Empire.<ref>Clarkson, T., ''History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament'', London, 1808.</ref> Britain used its influence to coerce other countries to agree to [[Abolition of slavery timeline#1800–1829|treaties]] to end their slave trade and allow the Royal Navy to [[Blockade of Africa|seize their slave ships]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Falola|first1=Toyin|last2=Warnock|first2=Amanda|title=Encyclopedia of the middle passage|date=2007|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=978-0-313-33480-1|pages=xxi, xxxiii–xxxiv|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UjRYKePKrB8C&pg=PR21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pdavis.nl/Background.htm|title=William Loney RN – Background|website=www.pdavis.nl}}</ref> Britain enforced the abolition of the trade because the act made trading slaves within British territories illegal. However, the act repealed the [[Amelioration Act 1798]] which attempted to improve conditions for slaves. The end of the slave trade did not end slavery as a whole. Slavery was still a common practice.

[[File:Thomas Clarkson by Carl Frederik von Breda.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Thomas Clarkson]] was the key speaker at the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society's (today known as [[Anti-Slavery International]]) first conference in London, 1840.]]

In the 1820s, the abolitionist movement revived to campaign against the institution of slavery itself. In 1823 the first Anti-Slavery Society, the [[Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions]], was founded. Many of its members had previously campaigned against the slave trade. On 28 August 1833, the [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833]] was passed. It purchased the slaves from their masters and paved the way for the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire by 1838,<ref>Mary Reckord, "The Colonial Office and the Abolition of Slavery." ''Historical Journal'' 14, no. 4 (1971): 723–734. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2638103 online].</ref> after which the first Anti-Slavery Society was wound up.

In 1839, the [[British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society]] was formed by [[Joseph Sturge]], which attempted to outlaw slavery worldwide and also to pressure the government to help enforce the suppression of the slave trade by declaring [[slave traders]] to be pirates. The world's oldest international human rights organization, it continues today as [[Anti-Slavery International]].<ref>[http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160513171717/http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=9462&URL_DO=DO_PRINTPAGE&URL_SECTION=201.html Anti-Slavery International] UNESCO. Retrieved 11 October 2011.</ref> Thomas Clarkson was the key speaker at the [[World Anti-Slavery Convention]] it held in London in 1840.

The trade of slaves was made illegal throughout the British Empire by 1937, with Nigeria and Bahrain being the last British territories to abolish slavery.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Nwaubani |first=Adaobi Tricia |date=2018-07-15 |title=My Great-Grandfather, the Nigerian Slave-Trader |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/my-great-grandfather-the-nigerian-slave-trader |access-date=2025-02-03 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The abolition of the slave trade in southeastern Nigeria, 1885-1950 {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/256735611 |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=search.worldcat.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Northrup |first=David |date=September 2007 |title=A. E. Afigbo. The Abolition of the Slave Trade in Southeastern Nigeria. 1885-1950. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2006. Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora. xv + 210 pp. Maps. Appendixes. Bibliography. Index. $75.00. Cloth. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/abs/a-e-afigbo-the-abolition-of-the-slave-trade-in-southeastern-nigeria-18851950-rochester-university-of-rochester-press-2006-rochester-studies-in-african-history-and-the-diaspora-xv-210-pp-maps-appendixes-bibliography-index-7500-cloth/7279CB1095BDD89AD84EACAA5AAA42CC |journal=African Studies Review |language=en |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=228–229 |doi=10.1353/arw.2007.0116 |issn=0002-0206}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Miers |first=Suzanne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zZk9Y-HTQzcC&q=1926+Slavery+Convention |title=Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem |date=2003 |publisher=Rowman Altamira |isbn=978-0-7591-0340-5 |pages=265–67 |language=en}}</ref>