Slave trade Act 1807 - wikipedia Slave trade Act 1807 For the American statute passed in the same year, see Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves. Abolition of the Slave Trade Act 1807 Parliament of the United Kingdom Long title An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade Citation 47 Geo III Sess. 1 c. 36 Introduced by Charles James Fox Territorial extent British Empire Dates Royal assent 25 March 1807 William Wilberforce, the leader of the British campaign to abolish the slave trade `` Am I Not a Man and a Brother ? '' medallion created as part of anti-slavery campaign by Josiah Wedgwood, 1787 The Slave Trade Act 1807, officially An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom prohibiting the slave trade in the British Empire. Although it did not abolish the practice of slavery, it did encourage British action to press other nations states to abolish their own slave trades. Many of the supporters thought the Act would lead to the end of slavery. Slavery on English soil was unsupported in English law and that position was confirmed in Somersett 's Case in 1772, but it remained legal in most of the British Empire until the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833. Contents 1 Background 2 Other nations 3 Enforcement 4 See also 5 References 6 External links Background The Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed in 1787 by a group of Evangelical English Protestants allied with Quakers, to unite in their shared opposition to slavery and the slave trade. The Quakers had long viewed slavery as immoral, a blight upon humanity. By 1807 the abolitionist groups had a very sizable faction of like - minded members in the British Parliament. At their height they controlled 35 -- 40 seats. Known as the `` Saints '', the alliance was led by the best known of the anti-slave trade campaigners, William Wilberforce, who had taken on the cause of abolition in 1787 after having read the evidence that Thomas Clarkson had amassed against the trade. These dedicated Parliamentarians had access to the legal draughtsmanship of James Stephen, Wilberforce 's brother - in - law. They often saw their personal battle against slavery as a divinely ordained crusade. On Sunday, 28 October 1787, Wilberforce wrote in his diary : `` God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners. '' Their numbers were magnified by the precarious position of the government under Lord Grenville, whose short term as Prime Minister was known as the Ministry of All the Talents. Grenville himself led the fight to pass the bill in the House of Lords, while in the Commons the Bill was led by the Foreign Secretary, Lord Howick ( Charles Grey, later Earl Grey ). Other events also played a part ; the Acts of Union 1800 brought 100 Irish MPs into Parliament, most of whom supported abolition. The Bill was first introduced to Parliament in January 1807. It went to the House of Commons on 10 February 1807. On 23 February 1807, twenty years after he first began his crusade, Wilberforce and his team were rewarded with victory. By an overwhelming 283 votes for to 16 against, the motion to abolish the Atlantic slave trade was carried in the House of Commons. The debate lasted ten hours and the House voted in favour of the Bill. The Bill received Royal Assent on 25 March 1807. Other nations By its Act Against Slavery of 1793, the Parliament of Upper Canada in British North America had abolished the slave trade, and in 1805 a British Order - in - Council had restricted the importation of slaves into colonies that had been captured from France and the Netherlands. Following adoption of the 1807 Act, Britain used its influence to pressure other nations to end their own slave trades. By the 1810 Anglo - Portuguese treaty Portugal agreed to restrict its trade into its colonies ; in the 1813 Anglo - Swedish treaty Sweden outlawed its slave trade ; and in the 1814 Treaty of Paris whereby France agreed with Britain that the slave trade was `` repugnant to the principles of natural justice '' and agreed to abolish the slave trade in five years. In the 1814 Anglo - Dutch treaty the Netherlands outlawed its slave trade, and the 1817 Anglo - Spanish treaty called for Spain to suppress its trade by 1820. The United States adopted its Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves on March 2, 1807, the same month and year as the British action. It provided for the abolition of its Atlantic slave trade but did not alter its internal trade in slaves. Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution forbade the closing of the slave trade for twenty years, until 1808. The long - planned law was passed a year earlier, and with the economic incentives of the slave trade coming to an end, there was both a spike number of slaves being traded and a unification of political factions against the trade. Enforcement Main article : Blockade of Africa The Act created fines for captains who continued with the trade. These fines could be up to £ 100 per enslaved person found on a ship. Captains would sometimes dump captives overboard when they saw Navy ships coming in order to avoid these fines. The Royal Navy, which then controlled the world 's seas, established the West Africa Squadron in 1808 to patrol the coast of West Africa, and between 1808 and 1860 they seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard. The Royal Navy declared that ships transporting slaves were the same as pirates. Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade, such as `` the usurping King of Lagos '', who was deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African rulers. In the 1860s, David Livingstone 's reports of atrocities within the Arab slave trade in Africa stirred up the interest of the British public, reviving the flagging abolitionist movement. The Royal Navy throughout the 1870s attempted to suppress `` this abominable Eastern trade '', at Zanzibar in particular. In 1890 Britain handed control of the strategically important island of Heligoland in the North Sea to Germany in return for control of Zanzibar, in part to help enforce the ban on slave trading. See also Part of a series on Slavery Contemporary Child labour Child soldiers Conscription Debt Forced marriage Bride buying Wife selling Forced prostitution Human trafficking Peonage Penal labour Sexual slavery Wage slavery Historical Antiquity Ancient Rome Babylonia Ancient Greece Topics and practices Atlantic slave trade Middle Passage Arab slave trade Ghilman Mamluk Saqaliba Aztec Blackbirding Byzantine Empire Coolie Corvée labor Field slaves in the United States House slaves Kholop Medieval Europe Panyarring Thrall Serfs History Russia Slave market Slave raiding Child soldiers Naval Galley slave Impressment Pirates Shanghaiing Slave ship By country or region Sub-Saharan Africa Contemporary Africa Slavery on the Barbary Coast Barbary slave trade Slave Coast Angola Chad Ethiopia Mali Mauritania Niger Somalia South Africa Sudan Seychelles North and South America Americas indigenous U.S. Natives Brazil Lei Áurea Canada Caribbean Barbados Code Noir Cuba Haiti revolt Restavek Latin America Puerto Rico Trinidad United States colonial maps female partus penal labor Slave codes interregional Human trafficking Virgin Islands Central, East, and South Asia Human trafficking in Southeast Asia Bhutan China Booi Aha Laogai India Debt bondage Chukri System Japan comfort women South Korea Yankee princess North Korea Vietnam Australia and Oceania Blackbirding in Australia Human trafficking in Australia Slave raiding in Easter Island Human trafficking in Papua New Guinea Blackbirding in Polynesia Europe and North Asia Sex trafficking in Europe Britain Denmark Dutch Republic Germany in World War II Malta Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia Spain colonies Sweden North Africa and West Asia Iran Libya Human trafficking in the Middle East Ottoman Empire Yemen Religion Bible Christianity Catholicism Mormonism Islam 21st century Judaism Bahá'í Faith Opposition and resistance Timeline Abolitionism U.K. U.S. Anti-Slavery International Blockade of Africa U.K. U.S. Colonization Liberia Sierra Leone Compensated emancipation Freedman manumission Freedom suit Abolitionists Slave Power Underground Railroad songs Slave rebellion Slave Trade Acts International law 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution Related Common law Indentured servitude Unfree labour Fugitive slaves laws Great Dismal Swamp maroons List of slaves owners Slave narrative films songs Slave name Slave catcher Slave patrol Slave Route Project Treatment in U.S. breeding court cases Washington Jefferson Adams Lincoln 40 acres Freedmen 's Bureau bit Emancipation Day Amazing Grace ( 2006 ), a film that portrays the campaign to pass the Act. References ^ Jump up to : `` Slave Trade Abolition Bill ''. Hansard. 10 February 1807. Jump up ^ `` Mar 2, 1807 : Congress abolishes the African slave trade '', This Day in History. ^ Jump up to : William Wilberforce ( 1759 -- 1833 ) Jump up ^ Cox, Jeffrey ( 2008 ). The British Missionary Enterprise Since 1700. London : Routledge. p. 90. ISBN 9780415090049. Jump up ^ `` The 1807 Act and its effects '', The Abolition Project. Jump up ^ `` Parliament abolishes the slave trade '', Parliament and the British Slave Trade. ^ Jump up to : Lovejoy, Paul E. ( 2000 ). Transformations in Slavery : A History of Slavery in Africa ( 2nd ed. ). New York : Cambridge University Press. p. 290. ISBN 0521780128. Jump up ^ Falola, Toyin ; Warnock, Amanda ( 2007 ). Encyclopedia of the Middle Passage. Greenwood Press. pp. xxi, xxxiii -- xxxiv. ISBN 9780313334801. Jump up ^ Rawley, J.A. ( 2005 ). The Transatlantic Slave Trade : A History. University of Nebraska Pres. p. 169. Jump up ^ `` 1807 Abolition of Slavery Act '', Spartacus Educational. Jump up ^ Jo Loosemore, `` Sailing against slavery '', BBC -- Devon, 24 September 2014. Jump up ^ The West African Squadron and slave trade Jump up ^ Welcome to Encyclopædia Britannica 's Guide to Black History Jump up ^ The Blood of a Nation of Slaves in Stone Town External links Text of Act Parliament and the British Slave Trade 1600 to 1833 Teaching Resources about Slavery and Abolition Timeline of Aftereffects, Royal Naval Museum Developments leading up to the Bill being passed United Kingdom legislation Pre-Parliamentary legislation List of English statutes Charter of Liberties Magna Carta Acts of Parliament by states preceding the Kingdom of Great Britain Parliament of England to 1483 1485 -- 1601 1603 -- 1641 Interregnum ( 1642 -- 1660 ) 1660 -- 1699 1700 -- 1706 Parliament of Scotland to 1707 Acts of Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain 1707 -- 1719 1720 -- 1739 1740 -- 1759 1760 -- 1779 1780 -- 1800 Acts of the Parliament of Ireland to 1700 1701 -- 1800 Acts of Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 1801 -- 1819 1820 -- 1839 1840 -- 1859 1860 -- 1879 1880 -- 1899 1900 -- 1919 1920 -- 1939 1940 -- 1959 1960 -- 1979 1980 -- 1999 2000 to date Halsbury 's Statutes Legislation.gov.uk Short titles relating to the European Union 1972 to date Church of England measures List Church of England Assembly ( Powers ) Act 1919 Legislation of devolved institutions Acts of the Scottish Parliament List Acts and Measures of the National Assembly for Wales List Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly Acts of the Parliament of Northern Ireland Orders in Council 1994 to date for Northern Ireland 1972 -- 2009 Secondary legislation United Kingdom statutory instruments Scottish statutory instruments Acts of Sederunt Acts of Adjournal Protestant missions to Africa People Roland Allen William Anderson Frederick Stanley Arnot John Arthur Samuel Bill Joseph Booth Daniel Coker Daniel Kumler Flickinger George Grenfell Carl Hugo Hahn Joseph Hardcastle Joseph Crane Hartzell Johannes Ittmann Franz Heinrich Kleinschmidt Johann Ludwig Krapf Margaret Nicholl Laird Christian Ignatius Latrobe David Livingstone Mary Livingstone Alexander Murdoch Mackay Joseph Merrick Robert Moffat Andrew Murray Helen Roseveare Hans Paludan Smith Schreuder John Philip Martti Rautanen Orishatukeh Faduma Alfred Saker Heinrich Schmelen William Henry Sheppard Mary Slessor John McKendree Springer Marion Scott Stevenson Charles Studd Hulda Stumpf William Taylor Gottlieb Viehe Missionary agencies American Board Africa Inland Mission Berlin Missionary Society Bethel Mission BMS World Mission Congo - Balolo Mission Christian and Missionary Alliance Church Mission Society Echoes of Service Finnish Missionary Society Heart of Africa Mission Livingstone Inland Mission London Missionary Society Mission Africa Mission to the World Paris Evangelical Missionary Society Rhenish Missionary Society USPG WEC International Wycliffe Global Alliance Pivotal events Slave Trade Act 1807 Slavery Abolition Act 1833 See also Christianity in Africa Timeline of Christian missions Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Slave_Trade_Act_1807&oldid=833799369 '' Categories : United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1807 Slave trade legislation Abolitionism in the United Kingdom History of sugar Repealed United Kingdom Acts of Parliament March 1807 events Hidden categories : CS1 : Julian -- Gregorian uncertainty All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from March 2018 Use dmy dates from September 2010 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Català Deutsch Español Français Bahasa Indonesia Português Svenska Türkçe Edit links This page was last edited on 2 April 2018, at 13 : 52. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: in which year did the british parliament prohibit the buying and selling of slaves
Answer: 1807