Editing Atlantic slave trade (section)

===African abolitionists===
{{See also|Sons of Africa|Ottobah Cugoano}}
According to [[Sociology|sociologist]] José Lingna Nafafé, the first movement against slavery and the Atlantic slave trade started in the 17th century among Africans in the Portuguese empire. [[Lourenço da Silva de Mendouça]], a royal from [[Angola]]'s [[Kingdom of Ndongo|Ndongo Kingdom]], campaigned against the slave trade while traveling through Italy, Spain, and the Vatican in Rome. Mendonça petitioned the Vatican, Portugal, Italy, and Spain in 1684 to end the enslavement of Africans, presenting his case to [[Pope Innocent XI]], and demanded the abolition for Africans, New Christians (Jews converted to Christianity) and American Indians. This was a century before  abolitionists [[William Wilberforce]] and Thomas Buxton emerged.<ref name="theconversation.com">{{cite news |title=Angolan prince started campaign to end Atlantic slave trade long before Europeans did – new book |url=https://theconversation.com/angolan-prince-started-campaign-to-end-atlantic-slave-trade-long-before-europeans-did-new-book-242839 |access-date=14 January 2025 |agency=The Conversation |date=2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Nafafe |first1=Jose Lingna |title=Lourenço da Silva Mendonça and the Black Atlantic Abolitionist Movement in the Seventeenth Century |series=Cambridge Studies on the African Diaspora |date=2022 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-83823-8 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/lourenco-da-silva-mendonca-and-the-black-atlantic-abolitionist-movement-in-the-seventeenth-century/lourenco-da-silva-mendonca-and-the-black-atlantic-abolitionist-movement-in-the-seventeenth-century/8D5F0B9097B131DD66ED53FB9C43F395}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Nafafe |first1=Joseph Lingna |title=Lourenço Da Silva Mendonça and the Black Atlantic Abolitionist Movement in the Seventeenth Century |date=2022 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781108976534 |pages=1–10, 11–20, 21–30 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Uv_EAAAQBAJ}}</ref>

[[File:Olaudah Equiano - Project Gutenberg eText 15399 (cropped).png|thumb|left|[[Olaudah Equiano]] was a member of the '[[Sons of Africa]]' an abolitionist group of 12 African men that campaigned against slavery and the slave trade.<ref>{{cite web |title=Olaudah Equiano (c.1745 - 1797) |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/equiano_olaudah.shtml |website=BBC History |access-date=15 January 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Brain |first1=Jessica |title=The Sons of Africa |url=https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Sons-Of-Africa/ |website=Historic UK |access-date=15 January 2025}}</ref>]]

Slavery's supporters cited Africans enslaving each other and claimed this as evidence of African's inferior nature. A common narrative of the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade portrays European Christians as morally superior and saviors of Africans from enslavement. In addition, Christian narratives also justified the slave trade, and the colonialism that followed British abolition.<ref name="theconversation.com"/>

Historian and author Benedetta Rossi states that some African societies implemented laws that prohibited the slave trade and slavery before European contact. Rossi writes: "...the actions of African critics of slavery were informed by cultural representations and normative traditions that varied from society to society. Second, at the individual level, what actors thought and did about slavery and abolition depended on their position in society: wealthy slaveowners, political rulers, religious authorities, and enslaved persons had different interests and tactics, which they developed in the political and economic circum stances of their times." African rulers who passed anti-slavery laws only abolished certain forms of slavery. African nations who opposed the slave trade did so for various reasons including cultural, religious, political, and economic motivations.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rossi |first1=Benedetta |title=The Abolition of Slavery in Africa's Legal Histories |journal=Law and History Review |date=2024 |volume=42 |pages=1–5, 9–12 |doi=10.1017/S0738248023000585 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/47A74EA1672DB9EF11881137DB43796A/S0738248023000585a.pdf/abolition_of_slavery_in_africas_legal_histories.pdf |access-date=15 January 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Greene |first1=Sandra |title=Minority Voices: Abolitionism in West Africa |journal=Slavery & Abolition |date=2015 |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=642–661 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0144039X.2015.1008213 |access-date=21 January 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=How West African Religions Adapted to the TA Slave Trade The Adaptations Made by Various West African Religions to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade |url=https://journeys.dartmouth.edu/marcanovicoff22/how-west-african-religions-adapted-to-the-ta-slave-trade/ |website=Dartmouth College |access-date=21 January 2025}}</ref>

In addition, African resistance to enslavement on slave ships and various [[slave rebellion|rebellions]] in the Americas sparked debates about abolishing the slave trade and slavery.<ref>{{cite web |title=How did the Abolition Acts of 1807 and 1833 affect the slave trade? |url=https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/slavery/ |website=The National Archives / United Kingdom |access-date=14 January 2025}}</ref> Abolitionist [[Olaudah Equiano]] was a former slave who was kidnapped from present day [[Nigeria]] and wrote an autobiography about his life published in 1789 that discussed the horrors of slavery, and gave lectures in Britain advocating abolition of the Atlantic slave trade and [[Slavery|chattel slavery]]. In 1788, Equiano participated in the House of Commons debates about slavery and abolition of the slave trade, wrote letters to the government, and corresponded with parliamentarians.<ref>{{cite web |title=Olaudah Equiano |url=https://artsandculture.google.com/story/olaudah-equiano-black-cultural-archives/HwWh3RaNNXTfIg?hl=en |website=Black Cultural Archives |publisher=Google Arts and Culture |access-date=15 January 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Transatlantic Slave Trade |url=https://heritagecollections.parliament.uk/stories/the-transatlantic-slave-trade/ |website=UK Parliament |access-date=21 January 2025}}</ref>

Author and historian Bronwen Everill writes the British were not the first to abolish the slave trade and African leaders in Sierra Leone had a role in ending the transatlantic slave trade. Formerly enslaved [[Black British people|Black Britons]] founded [[Sierra Leone]] in West Africa in 1787, on land inhabited by the [[Temne people]]. Over the years, [[Black Loyalist]]s from North America moved to the colony. The Temne, [[Susu people|Susu]], and [[Freedman|freedmen]] opposed the slave trade. The [[Sierra Leone Company]] in London managed the colony, and Africans and freedmen wanted to establish trade with the Sierre Leone Company without selling people. Sierra Leone's story reveals the British navy's reliance on African entities opposing the slave trade to achieve abolition. Britain took control of the Sierra Leone colony from the Sierra Leone Company, establishing a court and naval patrol to combat the slave trade by seizing ships.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Everill |first1=Bronwen |title=African leaders in Sierra Leone played a key role in ending the transatlantic slave trade |url=https://theconversation.com/african-leaders-in-sierra-leone-played-a-key-role-in-ending-the-transatlantic-slave-trade-207382 |access-date=21 January 2025 |agency=The Conversation |date=2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Bilow |first1=Ali |title=Founding of Sierra Leone, 1787 |url=https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/founding-sierra-leone/ |website=BlackPast |access-date=21 January 2025}}</ref>