Britain abolishes the transatlantic slave trade
- Date
- 25 March 1807
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- British Empire & the Atlantic
- Era
- Modern
- Significance
On 25 March 1807 the Slave Trade Act received royal assent, making it illegal for British subjects and British ships to engage in the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans; the ban took effect on 1 May 1807.
The measure capped two decades of campaigning by abolitionists including William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp and the formerly enslaved writers Olaudah Equiano and Ottobah Cugoano, alongside the testimony and resistance of enslaved people themselves. Britain had been the largest carrier in the Atlantic trade, so its withdrawal struck at the heart of a commerce that had forcibly transported millions across the ocean. The Act did not free a single enslaved person already held in the colonies, and illicit trafficking continued, but it committed the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron to intercepting slave ships and pressured other powers through diplomacy and treaties to follow suit. The 1807 ban marked the first major legislative victory of the organised abolitionist movement and reframed the slave trade in international law as a crime rather than a normal branch of commerce, setting a precedent that reshaped nineteenth-century politics across the Atlantic world.
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Empires active in 25 March 1807
- Russian Empire1721 CE – 1917 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Qing Dynasty1636 CE – 1912 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Mughal Empire1526 CE – 1857 CE
Related politics & governance events
- Congress of Vienna and the Concert of EuropeSeptember 1814 – June 1815
- The Slavery Abolition Act ends slavery across the British Empire28 August 1833 (in force 1 August 1834)
- The Revolutions of 1848 (the Springtime of Peoples)1848–1849
- Commodore Perry forces the opening of Japan1853–1854 (Treaty of Kanagawa, 31 March 1854)
- Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the birth of the British Raj1857–1858 (rebellion); Government of India Act 2 August 1858
- Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand and the Kingdom of ItalyMay–September 1860; Kingdom of Italy proclaimed 17 March 1861
Also relevant
Further reading
The wider story
Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire
Fast-paced narrative of Portugal's seaborne empire.
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