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
- 16 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 16
Watch first
Abolition: who ended the slave trade?
An English teaching video on this topic from Homeschool History. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.
In a nutshell
Understand Britain's transatlantic slave trade, its effects and its eventual abolition
What you already know
Part 2 of 16
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 16
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.
Learning cycle
Part 4 of 16
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 5 of 16
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 6 of 16
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 7 of 16
Pause
That's sitting 1 of 2 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.
Quick check
Part 8 of 16
Quick check
What did the 1807 Act do?
Quick check
Part 9 of 16
Quick check
Which revolution made slavery costlier to maintain?
Learning cycle
Part 10 of 16
Learning cycle 2 of 2
Law and what followed
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 11 of 16
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 12 of 16
Quick check
Who received compensation after 1833?
Common mix-ups
Part 13 of 16
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.
Challenge round
Part 14 of 16
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
Mastery quiz
Part 15 of 16
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Abolition: who ended the slave trade?
6 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
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?
Lesson round-up
Part 16 of 16
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
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Games
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Points this lesson
0
Best run
0 in a row
Luna: 0 out of 3 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaDo the work
Your written work for this lesson
This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.
A factory inspector's notebook, 1842
"I visited the mill at seven in the morning. The machines were already running. I counted fourteen children at the frames, the youngest no more than nine years of age. The overseer told me they work from six until seven, with forty minutes for dinner."
"The air is thick with cotton dust and the windows are kept shut so the thread does not break. Two of the children showed me hands cut by the shuttles. The owner assured me that the work is light and that the families beg him for the places, since without the children's wages the rent cannot be paid."
"I have written to the magistrates. I doubt much will follow from it."
Original source-style text written for Good Learning Co.
Reading questions
- Who wrote this, when, and why might that make it useful to a historian?
- What does the source tell you about children's work — and what does it not tell you?
- How far does this source show that mill owners were to blame? Answer with a judgement and evidence.
Source work
ReadingRead the source closely. Write who made it, when, and what it tells you — then what it does not tell you.
2 paragraphs
Essay answer
WritingAnswer the enquiry question with a clear judgement. Use two pieces of evidence and finish with a sentence that weighs them up.
300–400 words
Timeline
DiagramDraw a timeline of the events in this lesson with dates, then photograph it.
6–8 events
Saved as you type.
Part 1 of 16 · Watch & discover
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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