Slavery was officially abolished in most parts of the British Empire on this day 177 years ago, when the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 came into force. Britain had outlawed the slave trade when the Slave Trade Act 1807 came into force, and the Royal Navy had since patrolled the coast of West Africa, capturing slave ships and freeing African slaves. However, slavery continued and the Anti-Slavery Society kept up its campaign.
A strike by slaves in 1831 in Jamaica, which became known as the Baptist War because it was led by the Baptist preacher Samuel Sharpe who intended it to be a peaceful strike, resulted in the deaths of 500 slaves and 14 whites, and antagonism between missionaries and white planters. The loss of life and property led to two inquiries by the British Parliament, and these inquiries contributed to the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act.
William Wilberforce, who had been a tireless campaigner for the abolition of slavery for more than 30 years, was on his death bed when the Slavery Abolition Act was passed on 26 July 1833, and died just three days later. Just over a year later, the Act came into force, freeing all slaves below the age of six years and redesignating all slaves over the age of six as apprentices, with the terms of apprenticeship ending on 1 August 1840.