Martin Henry

ON MARCH 25, 1807, an Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade finally became law in the British Empire. The law was to take effect on May 1. It had been a long struggle. The British slave trade in Africans had begun with John Hawkins' supply of slaves to Spanish colonies in the West Indies 245 years before in 1562. Britain entered the trade in earnest with the start ofthe establishment of its own New World colonies in the early 1600s. By the time Jamaica was captured from the Spanish in 1655 sugar and slavery was the name of the game in the English West Indies.

On Sunday coming, CARICOM states, predominantly populated by the children of slaves, will observe one minute of silence in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the trans-atlantic slave trade.

The law

The Abolition Law said: "Be it therefore enacted by the King's most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that from and after the first day of may one thousand eight hundred and seven, the African Slave Trade, and all manner of dealing and trading in the purchase, sale, barter, or transfer of slaves, or of persons intended to be sold, transferred, used, or dealt with as slaves, practiced or carried on, in, at, to or from any part of the coast or countries of Africa, shall be, and the same is hereby utterly abolished, prohibited, and declared to be unlawful; and also that all manner of dealing, either by way of purchase, sale, barter, or transfer, or by means of any other contract or agreement whatever, relating to any slaves, or to any persons intended to be used or dealt with as slaves, for the purpose of such slaves or persons being removed or transported either immediately or by transshipment at sea or otherwise, directly or indirectly from Africa, or from any island, country, territory, or place whatever, in the West Indies, or in any other part of America, not being in the dominion, possession, or occupation of his majesty, to any other island, country, territory, or place whatever, is hereby in like manner utterly abolished, prohibited, and declared to be unlawful."

The fine for breaches was heavy - ?100 per slave. Illegal traders were known to dump their slave cargo to drown in the Atlantic when ships of the British Navy approached them rather than face such hefty fines. The British Navy actively pursued slavers of all nations treating them as pirates. A number of slaves freed on the high seas were landed in Jamaica. A great deal has been made of the influence of the French Revolution and of slave resistance to slavery in the abolition of the slave trade. And undoubtedly these and other factors had their influence. But the abolition movement was spearheaded in the British Parliament by a group of evangelical Christian MPs. Known as the 'saints', this alliance was led by William Wilberforce, the most important of the anti-slave trade campaigners and a born-again Christian.

Outright slavery

The great awakening of the eighteenth century which swept Europe and North America had aroused Christian conscience, which had long supported or tolerated slavery, against slavery and other social evils. Only four days before his death, John Wesley, co-founder of Methodism, which sprang out of the awakening, wrote to Wilberforce urging him to "go on in the name of God and in the power of His might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it."

A similar American act was signed into law by the slave-owning President Thomas Jefferson who 'believed' that all men were created equal, also in March 1807 and came into effect on January 1, 1808. Immediately after the abolition of the slave trade, the triumphant British abolitionists turned their attention to the emancipation of slaves already held in servitude. That was to be an equally long and difficult struggle. Servitude and outright slavery still thrive in the world today.