What do you think brought around the abolition of slavery in Britain?

Question:I was wondering what people thought was a catalyst for the abolition of slavery in Britain. I know public opinion was changing but can anyone think of nthing else?

Any help is much appreciated!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I was wondering what people thought was a catalyst for the abolition of slavery in Britain. I know public opinion was changing but can anyone think of nthing else?

Any help is much appreciated!

The public campaign against slavery in Britain included interviews with former slaves. Many of them were quite eloquent in describing their capture, how they were treated, how they won their freedom, and how they'd been treated since. The brutality of the slave trade was what killed it.

By the way, at the same time Britain was abolishing the slave trade, they were also exporting excess children to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. That argues that they also had high unemployment at the time since children as young as seven could be employed--and most of the children being exported were age five and older. It was the British equivalent of the American Orphan Train.

A really motivated activist called Wilberforce was an indefatigable lobbyist and he acted on what his concscience and his religion told him was the right thing to do. John Brown was the US equivalent, except Wilberforce didn't advocate violence. I think he was a Quaker.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think it had a lot to do with the waning force of British influence in the Americas, and slave trade becoming less and less economically important.

This is what I know about the abolition of slavery in Britain.

Modern Period,1789-1914>The French Revolution and Europe,1789-1914>Western and Central Europe,1815-1848>The British Isles>England,Scotland and Wales,1833,Aug 23rd.

William Wilberforce...English abolitionist.

Under the direction of Edward Stanley,Parliament abolished slavery in the colonies over a five-year period with compensations of ￡20 million to slave owners. It ended a long campaign by abolitionists led by William Wilberforce.

William Wilberforce and William Pitt, who was the prime minister, were friends and brought it about together. You see, Wilberforce realized the evil of slavery and tried for most of his life, and ruined his health to pass a bill ending the slave trade. With the help of Pitt, it eventually came to pass. Realize however, that he just ended the slave TRADE, not slavery altogether. Some just wanted to set all of the slaves free, but Wilberforce knew that that would be detrimental to England because the slaves did not know how to take care of themselves. (Sound familiar? Lincoln's Emancipation Proclimation approx. 1862) Our country by making that mistake, we are still paying the consecuences, while England has no black vs. white issues. If you want to see an AbSoLuTeLy ExCeLlEnT movie about it, watch, "Amazing Grace." It's fabulous and historically accurate.