Beginning in the 1500s, the slave trade saw millions forced to leave their homes and shipped against

their will to endure a life of manual labour and mistreatment. Mainly targeting Africa, people were
transported across the Atlantic to America, where they would be sold at auctions.

Having been split from their families, people were forced aboard cramped and disease-ridden ships for
months. Life at sea involved brutal physical and emotional abuse, with around 15 per cent dying on the
journey. Some feared losing their lives on board, while others feared the lives they were sailing towards,
and were force-fed by crew as they tried to starve themselves. Objectified and sold in a foreign land in
exchange for goods such as cotton, sugar, tobacco and ginger, how could such an unjust and profit-
driven operation continue for centuries? And how was this established and barbaric system eventually
banned?

When Britain explored other countries, encountering diverse and unfamiliar civilisations, instead of
embracing these new cultures, Britons were much more interested in the available land and the people
they could utilise for economic gain. The attitudes to race at the time meant that the government
allowed this unjust treatment of innocent people. Because the slave trade was legal, those who
protested against it needed to find a way to reach those in power to bring about change. It took a
combination of enslaved activists and distant onlookers to battle to bring these centuries of torture to a
close. As slaves spoke out about their own experiences and those in parliament began to acknowledge
the inhumane practices involved, the laws on the trading of people began to be repealed. Following is
the timeline of important milestones achieved in the long, hard-fought struggle for slave emancipation.

1562 1713 1765 1772

John Hawkins captured The Treaty of Utrecht After making friends It was ruled that slaves
400 Africans in a provided permissions for with Jonathan Strong, a brought to England
violent conflict and Britain to import slave who was being can’t be forcibly
traded them in the unlimited number of badly beaten, Granville removed and returned
West Indies for pearls, slaves to the Spanish Sharp began to to where they were
ginger and sugar. He’s Caribbean. challenge the British taken from.
the first known to have save trade.
done this.
1791 1791 1804 1807
Parliament rejected the The Haitian Revolution St. Domingue became Parliament passed an
very first bill to abolish broke out as slaves in St. the Republic of Haiti. Act for the Abolition of
the slave trade by 163 Domingue rose against This was the world’s the Slave Trade,
votes to 88. French colonists there. first black-led state to meaning it was illegal
This involved burning declare independence to buy and sell slaves.
plantations growing the outside of Africa. The Slavery Abolition
sugar used for trades Law was finally made
law in 1833.

Source: 2021-01-01_How_It_Works