Tag: the beginnings of empire

The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 was passed by the British Parliament and officially came into effect on August 1, 1834, ending slavery in most British colonies.

The Middle Passage refers to the forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas, which was one leg of the triangular trade route.

Historians estimate that approximately 12 million Africans were forcibly transported across the Atlantic during the period of the transatlantic slave trade.

Great Britain is an island nation located off the north-western coast of the European continent.

The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade (or The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade) was a British abolitionist group, formed on 22 May 1787, by twelve men who gathered together at a printing shop in London. The Society worked to educate the public about the abuses of the slave trade; it achieved the abolition of the international slave trade in 1807, enforced by the Royal Navy. Three Anglicans were founding members: Thomas Clarkson, campaigner, and author of an influential essay against the slave trade; Granville Sharp who, as a lawyer, had long been involved in the support and prosecution of cases on behalf of enslaved Africans; and Philip Sansom. Hence, Option A is correct. Among the rest, Thomas Paine was an England-born political philosopher and writer who supported revolutionary causes in America and Europe. Published in 1776 to international acclaim, Common Sense was the first pamphlet to advocate American independence. William Pitt the Younger was a prominent British Tory statesman of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1783 at the age of 24 and the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as of January 1801. None of the other options advocated the abolition of slavery, hence, incorrect. 

The Emancipation Act provided for the apprenticeship system and compensation for planters, but it did not grant complete freedom to females under 16; rather, it primarily focused on children under six being freed immediately.

Impending emancipation, abolition of the transatlantic trade in captured Africans in 1807, amelioration of enslavement conditions in 1823 and the publicity that was given to the anti- slavery society created a charged environment, particularly, in the British Caribbean. The brutality of the Jamaican plantocracy during the revolt is thought to have accelerated the British political process of emancipating the slaves. Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 for initial measures to begin in 1834, followed by partial emancipation (outright for children six or under, six years apprenticeship for the rest) in 1834 and then unconditional emancipation of chattel slavery in 1838. Hence, Option A is correct. Among the rest, The Berbice Revolt failed due to divisions among the rebels and a failure to seize on momentum. Bussa's Revolt happened in April 1816. Tacky's War, or Tacky's Rebellion, was an uprising of Akan slaves that occurred in Jamaica from May to July 1760. Since none of these other rebellions forced the Government to pass slavery abolition act immediately, these are incorrect. 

William Wilberforce was a British politician and philanthropist who led the parliamentary campaign to abolish the slave trade.