| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act for the Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Colonies; for promoting the Industry of the manumitted Slaves; and for compensating the Persons hitherto entitled to the Services of such Slaves |
|---|---|
| Citation | 3 & 4 Will. 4. c. 73 |
| Introduced by | Prime MinisterCharles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey (Commons) |
| Territorial extent | United Kingdom |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 28 August 1833 |
| Commencement | 1 August 1834[a] |
| Repealed | 19 November 1998 |
| Other legislation | |
| Amended by | |
| Repealed by | Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1998 |
| Relates to | |
Status: Repealed | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Revised text of statute as amended | |
TheSlavery Abolition Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will. 4. c. 73) was anact of theParliament of the United Kingdom which abolishedslavery in theBritish Empire by way ofcompensated emancipation. The act was legislated byWhigPrime MinisterCharles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey's reforming administration, and it was enacted by ordering the British government to purchase the freedom of all slaves in the British Empire, and by outlawing the further practice of slavery in the British Empire. The Act explictly delineated 19 separate pots of compensation covering the Caribbean, South Africa, and Mauritius. Although Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand were technically included, these had relatively few slaves at this time for other reasons. India was excluded. Around 800,000 freed slaves were attested in the claims process.[1]
While the 1833 Act was a landmark, it did not end slavery throughout the entire British sphere of influence. The Act explicitly excluded territories like British India, where slavery was addressed separately by theIndian Slavery Act, 1843. In regions colonized later, such as Nigeria, the abolition of pre-existing local systems of slavery was a gradual process that extended into the early 20th century. Furthermore, inBritish protectorates, which retained their own local laws, the institution persisted for much longer. For example, slavery inBahrain was not legally abolished until 1937.
Slavery had been abolished in England by 1772. In May 1772,Lord Mansfield's judgment in theSomerset case emancipated a slave who had been brought toEngland fromBoston in theProvince of Massachusetts Bay, and thus helped launch the movement to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire.[2][3] The case ruled that slavery had no legal status in England as it had no common law or statutory law basis, and as such someone could not legally be a slave in England.[4] However, many campaigners, includingGranville Sharp, took the view that theratio decidendi of theSomerset case meant that slavery was unsupported by law within England and that no ownership could be exercised on slaves entering English or Scottish soil.[5][6]Ignatius Sancho, who in 1774 became the second recorded black person to vote in a British general election — the first being John London — wrote a letter in 1778 that opens in praise of Britain for its "freedom, and for the many blessings I enjoy in it", before criticizing the actions towards his black brethren in parts of the Empire such as the West Indies.[7][8]
By 1783, ananti-slavery movement to abolish the slave trade throughout the Empire had begun among the British public,[9] with theSociety for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade being established in 1787.[10] TheWedgwood anti-slavery medallion byJosiah Wedgwood was, according to the BBC, "the most famous image of a black person in all of 18th-century art".[11] Fellow abolitionistThomas Clarkson wrote: "Of the ladies several wore them in bracelets, and others had them fitted up in an ornamental manner as pins for their hair. At length, the taste for wearing them became general; and thus fashion, which usually confines itself to worthless things, was seen for once in the honourable office of promoting the cause of justice, humanity and freedom."[12]
Spurred by an incident involvingChloe Cooley, a slave woman brought to Canada by anAmerican loyalist, the Lieutenant-Governor ofUpper Canada,John Graves Simcoe, tabled theAct Against Slavery in 1793. Passed by the localLegislative Assembly, it was the first legislation to outlaw the slave trade in a part of the British Empire.[9] By the late 18th century, Britain was simultaneously the largest slave trader and centre of the largest abolitionist movement.[13]William Wilberforce had written in his diary in 1787 that his great purpose in life was to suppress the slave trade before waging a 20-year fight on the industry.[14]
Parliament passed theSlave Trade Act 1807 (47 Geo. 3 Sess. 1. c. 36), which outlawed the international slave trade, but not slavery itself. The legislation was timed to coincide with the expectedAct Prohibiting Importation of Slaves by the United States, Britain's chief rival in maritime commerce. This legislation imposed fines that did little to deter slave trade participants. AbolitionistHenry Brougham realized that trading had continued, and as a new MP successfully introduced theSlave Trade Felony Act 1811 (51 Geo. 3. c. 23) which at last made the overseas slave trade afelony throughout the empire. TheRoyal Navy established theWest Africa Squadron to suppress theAtlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa. It did suppress the slave trade, but did not stop it entirely. Between 1808 and 1860, the West Africa Squadron captured 1,600slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans.[15] They resettled many in Jamaica and the Bahamas.[16][17] Britain also used its influence to coerce other countries to agree totreaties to end their slave trade and allow the Royal Navy toseize their slave ships.[18][19]
Between 1807 and 1823, abolitionists showed little interest in abolishing slavery itself.Eric Williams presented economic data inCapitalism and Slavery to show that the slave trade itself generated only small profits compared to the much more lucrative sugar plantations of the Caribbean, and therefore slavery continued to thrive on those estates. However, from 1823 the British Caribbean sugar industry went into terminal decline, and the British parliament no longer felt they needed to protect the economic interests of the West Indian sugar planters.[20]
In 1823, theAnti-Slavery Society was founded in London. Members includedJoseph Sturge,Thomas Clarkson,William Wilberforce,Henry Brougham,Thomas Fowell Buxton,Elizabeth Heyrick,Mary Lloyd,Jane Smeal,Elizabeth Pease, andAnne Knight.[21] Jamaican mixed-race campaigners such asLouis Celeste Lecesne andRichard Hill were also members of the Anti-Slavery Society.
During the Christmas holiday of 1831, a large-scale slave revolt in Jamaica, known as theBaptist War, broke out. It was organised originally as a peaceful strike by the Baptist ministerSamuel Sharpe. The rebellion was suppressed by the militia of the Jamaican plantocracy and the British garrison ten days later in early 1832. Because of the loss of property and life in the 1831 rebellion, the British Parliament held two inquiries. The results of these inquiries contributed greatly to the abolition of slavery with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.[22][23]
Up until then, sugar planters from rich British islands such as theColony of Jamaica andBarbados were able to buyrotten and pocket boroughs, and they were able to form a body of resistance to moves to abolish slavery itself. This West India Lobby, which later evolved into theWest India Committee, purchased enough seats to be able to resist the overtures of abolitionists. However, theReform Act 1832 swept away their rotten borough seats, clearing the way for a majority of members of the House of Commons to push through a law to abolish slavery itself throughout the British Empire.[24]
The act passed its second reading in the House of Commons unopposed on 22 July 1833,[25] just a week beforeWilliam Wilberforce died. The Commons third reading and passage occurred on 7 August,[26] whereon it was sent to the Lords. Read there a second time on 12 August[27] it passed the Lords on 20 August.[28] The bill receivedroyal assent on 28 August, and came into force the following year, on 1 August 1834.
In practical terms, only slaves below the age of six were freed in the colonies. Former slaves over the age of six were redesignated as "apprentices", and their servitude was gradually abolished in two stages: the first set of apprenticeships came to an end on 1 August 1838, while the final apprenticeships were scheduled to cease on 1 August 1840. The act specifically excluded "the Territories in the Possession of theEast India Company, or to the Island ofCeylon, or to the Island ofSaint Helena."[29] The exceptions were eliminated in 1843 with theIndian Slavery Act, 1843.[30][31]
The act provided forcompensation to slave-owners, but not to slaves. The amount of money to be spent on the payments was set at "the Sum of Twenty Million Pounds Sterling".[32] Under the terms of the act, the British government raised £20 million[33] to pay out for the loss of the slaves as business assets to the registered owners of the freed slaves. In 1833, £20 million amounted to 40% of the Treasury's annual income[34] or approximately 5% of British GDP at the time.[35] To finance the payments, the British government took on a £15 million loan, finalised on 3 August 1835, with bankerNathan Mayer Rothschild and his brother-in-lawMoses Montefiore; £5 million was paid out directly in government stock, worth £1.5 billion in present day.[36]
There have been claims the money was not paid back by the British taxpayers until 2015,[37] but this claim is based on a technicality as to how the British Government financed their debt through undated gilts. According to the Treasury the 1837 slave debts were subsumed into a consolidated 4% loan issued in 1927 (maturing in 1957 or after).[38] It was only when the British government modernised thegilt portfolio in 2015 by redeeming all remaining undated gilts that there was complete certainty that the debt was extinguished. The long gap between this money being borrowed and certainty of repayment was due to the type of financial instrument that was used, rather than the amount of money borrowed.[39] Regardless, this does not contradict the fact that, in practical terms, taxpayer's money serviced the debt originated from the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.[40]
Half of the money went to slave-owning families in the Caribbean and Africa, while the other half went to absentee owners living in Britain.[33] The names listed in the returns for slave owner payments show that ownership was spread over many hundreds of British families,[41] many of them (though not all[42]) of high social standing. For example,Henry Phillpotts (then theBishop of Exeter), with three others (as trustees and executors of the will ofJohn Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley), was paid £12,700 for 665 slaves in the West Indies,[43] whilstHenry Lascelles, 2nd Earl of Harewood received £26,309 for 2,554 slaves on six plantations.[44] The majority of men and women who were paid under the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 are listed in a Parliamentary Return, entitled Slavery Abolition Act, which is an account of all moneys awarded by the Commissioners of Slave Compensation in theParliamentary Papers 1837–8 (215) vol. 48.[45]
A successor organisation to the Anti-Slavery Society was formed in London in 1839, theBritish and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, which worked tooutlaw slavery worldwide.[46] The world's oldest international human rights organisation, it continues today asAnti-Slavery International.[47]
The whole act was repealed by section 1 of, and part VIII of schedule 1 to, theStatute Law (Repeals) Act 1998. However, this repeal did not make slavery legal again, as sections of theSlave Trade Act 1824 (5 Geo. 4. c. 113),Slave Trade Act 1843 (6 & 7 Vict. c. 98) andSlave Trade Act 1873 (36 & 37 Vict. c. 88) are still in force. In addition theHuman Rights Act 1998 incorporates into British Law Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights which prohibits the holding of persons as slaves.[1]
Ava DuVernay was commissioned by theSmithsonian'sNational Museum of African American History and Culture to create a film which debuted at the museum's opening on 24 September 2016. This film,28 August: A Day in the Life of a People, tells of six significant events inAfrican-American history that happened on the same date, 28 August. Events depicted include (among others) William IV's royal assent to the Slavery Abolition Act.[48]
Amazing Grace is a 2006 British-Americanbiographicaldrama film directed byMichael Apted, about the campaign against theslave trade in theBritish Empire, led byWilliam Wilberforce, who was responsible for steering anti-slave trade legislation through theBritish parliament. The title is a reference to the 1772hymn "Amazing Grace". The film also recounts the experiences ofJohn Newton as a crewman on a slave ship and subsequentreligious conversion, which inspired his writing of the poem later used in the hymn. Newton is portrayed as a major influence on Wilberforce and the abolition movement.[citation needed]
The act is referenced in the 2010 novelThe Long Song by British authorAndrea Levy and in the 2018BBC television adaptation of the same name. The novel and television series tell the story of a slave in colonial Jamaica who lives through the period of slavery abolition in the British West Indies.
