Abolition: who ended the slave trade?
The familiar story credits a few campaigners. The evidence is more crowded than that.
Part of your national curriculum
- Britain 1066-1901: Understand Britain's transatlantic slave trade, its effects and its eventual abolition
- Challenges 1901 to the present: Understand Britain's transatlantic slave trade, its effects and its eventual abolition, in the context of empire
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Understand Britain's transatlantic slave trade, its effects and its eventual abolition
Key learning points
- • The campaign in Britain
- • Resistance by enslaved people
- • Law and aftermath
This lesson at a glance
- 30 minutes
- 21 parts to scroll through
- 3 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 21
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Abolition: who ended the slave trade?
Weighing the arguments about who brought the slave trade to an end.
In a nutshell
Understand Britain's transatlantic slave trade, its effects and its eventual abolition
What you already know
Part 2 of 21
Before we start
What you already know
You should already know that abolition had several causes, and that historians weigh the importance of different factors.
Key words
Part 3 of 21
Key words
Words you'll need today
- Significance
- How much something mattered, judged against clear criteria.
- Emancipation
- The legal freeing of enslaved people, in British colonies from 1834.
- Apprenticeship
- The unpaid period forced on freed people after 1834.
- Compensation
- The vast sums paid to slave owners, not to those they had enslaved.
Reset break
Part 4 of 21
Pause
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Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Learning cycle
Part 5 of 21
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Two kinds of pressure
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 6 of 21
Learn
The campaign in Britain
From 1787 abolitionists organised petitions, boycotts of slave-grown sugar and mass public meetings. Equiano's published account gave the movement first-hand testimony.
Explore the idea
Part 7 of 21
Learn
Resistance by enslaved people
Revolts in the Caribbean, above all the Haitian Revolution from 1791, made the system dangerous and expensive to hold. Historians now weight this far more heavily than older accounts did.
Reset break
Part 8 of 21
Pause
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Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Quick check
Part 9 of 21
Quick check
Part 10 of 21
Learning cycle
Part 11 of 21
Learning cycle 2 of 2
Law and what followed
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Reset break
Part 12 of 21
Pause
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Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Explore the idea
Part 13 of 21
Learn
Law and aftermath
The 1807 Act ended the trade; the 1833 Act ended slavery in most of the empire. Compensation was paid to slave owners, not to the people they had enslaved.
Quick check
Part 14 of 21
Common mix-ups
Part 15 of 21
Common mix-ups
Things people often get wrong
- People often think freedom in 1834 was immediate and complete. Forced apprenticeship continued for years.
- People often assume the freed were compensated. Payments went to former owners.
Reset break
Part 16 of 21
Pause
That's sitting 4 of 5 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Challenge round
Part 17 of 21
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Challenge round
Part 18 of 21
Game · Recall cards
Why is testimony from formerly enslaved people such as Olaudah Equiano so valuable to historians?
Card 1 of 4
Exit quiz
Part 19 of 21
Exit quiz
Show what you've learned
6 questions, marked together at the end. Nothing is timed.
1. Slavery in most British colonies was abolished in…
2. Compensation after abolition was paid to…
3. Apprenticeship meant freed people…
4. Judging significance requires…
5. Which claim is most accurate?
6. Why study the aftermath as well as the law?
Mastery quiz
Part 20 of 21
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Abolition: who ended the slave trade?
4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. Why is testimony from formerly enslaved people such as Olaudah Equiano so valuable to historians?
2. The middle passage refers to…
3. Which British ports grew on this trade?
4. Goods returning to Britain included…
Lesson round-up
Part 21 of 21
Lesson round-up
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Understand Britain's transatlantic slave trade, its effects and its eventual abolition
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Understand Britain's transatlantic slave trade, its effects and its eventual abolition, in the context of empire