On this date in 1834, the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act passed in 1833 became law, and slavery became illegal in the United Kingdom.
Slavery was an essential component of the economies of both Britain and the United States. Until the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, Britain was responsible for transporting 3.5 million African slaves to the Americas through the Middle Passage. This was a third of all slaves transported across the Atlantic. The 1807 law did not stop the British slave trade, however. An act making not just the slave trade but slavery itself illegal was passed in 1838.
In 2021, this date was the first Emancipation Day in Canada.
History of American Slavery
by Duncan Clarke JG Press
Copyright 1998 PRC Publishing Ltd.
ISBN 1 57215 256 7
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