1787 Formation of a Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade in London and some provincial cities. Thomas Clarkson travels to get evidence on the trade. William Pitt and William Wilberforce attempt to initiate an Anglo-French suspension of the slave trade. The following five years, 1788-1792, are usually bracketed as the period of mass abolitionist agitation, led by Clarksons, Wilbeforce, and Pitt.
Government seeks to expand British colonial cotton growth.
Manchester launches a mass abolition petition campaign. Privy Council Committee for Trade and Plantations reports on the slave trade. Abolition is raised in Parliament. First slave carrying act, the Dolben Act of 1788, regulates the slave trade. Mass propaganda campaigns begin.