Year

Events

1400

At the end of the 14th century, Europeans start to take people from Africa against their will. Initially these captives are mainly used as servants for the rich.

1502

The first African slaves arrive in the Americas.

1562

Sir John Hawkins becomes the first English slave trader when he adds the transportation of captured Africans to his family's trading interests in west Africa. He is backed by the treasurer to the British navy, the lord mayor of London and Elizabeth I. Between 1564 and 1569, he makes three further voyages to the Sierra Leone River, taking a total of 1,200 Africans across the Atlantic to sell to Spanish settlers in the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (now Haiti/Dominican Republic). On his third voyage in 1567/8, he is accompanied by the young Francis Drake.

With Hawkins, the triangular trade – between Europe, west Africa, the West Indies (or British North America), returning to the starting point – has begun. It is risky and competitive, but African slaves fetch high prices at auction, making the trade in human cargo a lucrative business.

Read more about the slave trade on the Origination website.

1600

By now, slaves can be purchased in Africa for about $25 and sold in the Americas for about $150.

1632

Charles I grants a licence to a group of London merchants for the transportation of enslaved people from West Africa.

1646

Philosopher Sir Thomas Browne writes against slavery.

1650

With the development of plantations on the newly colonised Caribbean islands and American mainland, the slave trade begins to grow.

1655

Slave uprising in Jamaica.

1660

Charles II grants a charter to the Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading to Africa. Their supporters include members of the royal family, peers, major London merchants – and Samuel Pepys. Within five years, the company earns an estimated £100,000 from its trade in enslaved Africans.

1672

The Royal African Company is formed by a group of London merchants to regulate the English slave trade. It receives annual grants from Parliament totalling about £90,000. Charles I is a shareholder and his brother, the duke of York (and future king James II), is the governor. Between 1680 and 1686, it transports an average 5,000 slaves per year.

1673

Slave uprising in Jamaica.

1698

The Royal African Company loses its monopoly. The slave trade is opened up to private traders who must pay a 10% duty on English goods exported to Africa and towards the cost of maintaining slave forts on the west coast of Africa.

Bristol's first slave ship, the Beginning, sails to the African coast, buys a number of enslaved Africans and delivers them to Jamaica.

1699

By the end of the century, one out of every four ships that leaves Liverpool harbour is a slave trading ship.

1700

Liverpool's first slave ship, the Liverpool Merchant, transports 220 slaves to Barbados and sells them for £4,239, less than £20 per slave.

1713

At the end of the War of the Spanish Succession, Britain signs the Treaty of Utrecht with Spain. This grants Britain the right (asiento) to import slaves into Spanish America for 30 years. The British government sells the asiento to the South Sea Company (later to be come infamous in the scandal of the 'South Sea Bubble') for the enormous sum of £7.5 million. Between 1715 and 1731, the company transports approximately 64,000 enslaved Africans.

1720

From now until the end of the decade, nearly 200,000 enslaved Africans are transported across the Atlantic in British ships.

1729

The 1st Maroon War begins in Jamaica between the British and the Maroons, runaway slaves who had become established in the mountains.

1730

Bristol begins to overtake London as the leading slaving port in Britain.

1735–6

Slave revolt on Antigua: 77 of the rebels are burned alive.

1739

The 1st Maroon War (see 1729) ends in Jamaica. The freedom and the right to self-government of the Maroons is recognised and they are given their land. In return, they will support the British against foreign invasion of the island, and will help capture runaway slaves from the plantations.

1740

Slavers from the ship Jolly Bachelor are attacked in the Sierra Leone River by free Africans, who liberate the slaves that had been captured.

Liverpool begins to overtake Bristol as the leading slaving port in Britain.

1745

Bristol merchant John Cary writes in his book A Discourse on Trade that the slave trade held ‘... the Prospect of so great a Profit’ to investors. At this time, profits of 50 to 100% are possible.

1750

The Royal African Company is replaced by the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa, made up of 89 Liverpool merchants, 157 from London and 237 from Bristol.

For the next 30 years, almost three-quarters of the British slave trade is financed by Liverpool merchants.

1753

Slaves on the ship The Adventure, off West Africa, carry out a successful uprising against the slavers.

1760

Tacky's Rebellion, Jamaica: Maroons (see 1729, 1739), led by Tacky, defeat a rebellion by newly arrived African slaves. More than 400 slaves are executed and 600 deported as a result.

The Quakers ban their members from slave trading.

1763

Slave uprising in Guiana in the north-east of South America. It is governed for a year by a slave named Cuffy.

1765

The Strong case: Londoner Granville Sharp and his surgeon brother are visited by Jonathan Strong, a black slave beaten almost to death by his master David Lisle. Sharp takes Strong to Bart's Hospital, where he spends four months recovering. When Strong regains his health, Lisle pays two men to recapture him. Sharp takes Lisle to court, claiming that, as Strong is in England, he is no longer a slave. It is not until 1768 that the court rules in Strong's favour. The case receives national publicity, and Sharp is able to use it in his campaign against slavery.

1769

Following the Strong case, Granville Sharp publishes his findings about the horrors of slavery in the important pamphlet A representation of the injustice and dangerous tendency of tolerating slavery in England.

1772

The Somerset case: In 1769, Charles Stewart takes one of his slaves, James Somerset, from Jamaica to Britain. Two years later, Somerset runs away, but is recaptured and put on a ship bound for Jamaica. Granville Sharp intervenes and puts the case before Lord Mansfield, lord chief justice of England. He rules that no one brought to England can be sent back to the colonies as a slave against their will.

1776

The House of Commons debates the motion ‘That the slave trade is contrary to the laws of God and the rights of man’.

1778

The House of Commons sets up a committee to investigate the slave trade.

Wedderburn v. Knight: Joseph Knight, who was purchased from a Jamaica slave trader by John Wedderburn, seeks to leave Wedderburn's employ, claiming that the act of landing in Scotland has freed him from ‘perpetual servitude’, as slavery is not recognised in Scotland. Wedderburn insists that slavery and perpetual servitude are different states, arguing that, in Scot's law, Knight, even though not recognised as a slave, is still bound to provide perpetual service in the same manner as an indentured servant or an apprenticed artisan. The justices of the peace in Perth find in favour of Wedderburn. Knight then appeals to the sheriff deputy and the decision is overturned. Wedderburn then makes a further appeal to the lords of council and session, who uphold his appeal and order that Knight cannot choose to abandon his old ‘master’.

1780

The Zong case: 131 Africans are thrown overboard from the slave ship Zong, but the case is heard as an insurance dispute, not a murder trial. It causes outrage and strengthens the abolition campaign.

The Quakers present a petition to Parliament against the slave trade.

1787

22 May: Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp form the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Of the 12 members on the committee, nine are Quakers. Influential figures such as John Wesley and Josiah Wedgwood give their support to the campaign. Later they persuade William Wilberforce, MP for Hull, to be their spokesman in the House of Commons.

Wedgwood produces the Abolition Society's seal. It shows a black slave in chains, kneeling, his hands lifted up to heaven. The motto reads: ‘Am I Not a Man and a Brother?’

Clarkson publishes his pamphlet A Summary View of the Slave Trade and of the Probable Consequences of Its Abolition. When he visits Manchester, an anti-slavery petition is signed by almost 11,000 people, 20% of the city's population.

Ottobah Cuguano becomes the first ex-slave to formally criticise slavery and the slave trade, in his autobiography Thoughts and sentiments on the evil and wicked traffic of the slavery and commerce of the human species.

From now to 1807, all 20 mayors of Liverpool finance or own slave ships.

1788

28 January: Bristol becomes the first city outside London to set up a committee to press for the abolition of the slave trade.

A House of Commons committee discovers that the slave ship Brookes, originally built to carry a maximum of 451 people, is transporting more than 600 slaves from Africa to the Americas. The Dolben Act – the first law related to the slave trade – is enacted to limit the number of slaves a ship is permitted to carry.

1789

12 May: William Wilberforce MP makes his first anti-slavery speech.

Olaudah Equiano publishes his memoir: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. It contains one of the few accounts of the ‘Middle Passage’ – the Africa-Americas leg of the ‘triangular trade’ – from a slave's point of view: ‘The shrieks of the women and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable.’

1790

The British West Indies has a slave population of 480,000.

1791

William Wilberforce presents to the House of Commons his first Bill to abolish the slave trade. It is easily defeated, 163 votes to 88.

The Kimber case: John Kimber, master of the slave ship Recovery, is accused of murdering a young female slave, whom he suspended by her ankle and whipped to punish her for not eating. He protests his innocence and is found not guilty at the High Court of the Admiralty. The ship's surgeon and third mate who testify against him are charged with perjury. The case creates headlines throughout Britain.

Between now and the end of the decade, 1,340 slaving voyages are mounted from British ports, carrying nearly 400,000 Africans to the Americas.

1792

Denmark, which was very active in the slave trade, becomes the first country to ban the trade through legislation (it takes effect in 1803).

William Wilberforce gains House of Commons support for the gradual abolition of the slave trade. But it is a hollow victory as no timetable for change is attached to the Act.

1793

The cotton industry is given a boost with Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin. With the aid of a horse to turn the gin, a man can now clean 50 times as much cotton as before. This increases the demand for slaves.

1794

Following a slave revolt, France loses its most important colony St Dominigue (now Haiti). From now, the British island colonies in the Caribbean produce the most sugar and the British public becomes its greatest consumers. Products of American slave labour soon permeate every level of British society, with tobacco, coffee and, especially, sugar all becoming indispensable elements of daily life for all classes.

1795

Fédon's Rebellion in Grenada causes enormous damage to plantations. Slaves seize control of large parts of the island before being defeated by British troops in 1796.

2nd Maroon War in Jamaica (see 1739). After a new governor, the earl of Balcarres, arrests Maroon leaders for stealing pigs, the conflict begins, with 300 Maroons holding out for five months against 1,500 British troops and 3,000 members of the local militia. Undefeated but threatened with bloodhounds, the Maroons offer to surrender, but most fail to meet the three-day deadline. The governor refuses to be flexible and arrests the Maroons, who are transported, first, to Nova Scotia and then to Sierra Leone.

1796

John Stedman publishes an account of the inhumanity he had seen shown to African slaves during a military expedition to put down a rebellion in Surinam in South America in 1772–3. Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam becomes a classic of abolitionist literature.

1800

By far the most successful West Indian colonies belong to the UK. After entering the sugar colony business late, British naval supremacy and control over key islands such as Jamaica, Trinidad and Barbados and the territory of Guiana give it an important edge over all competitors.

Since 1600, the British have imported about 1.7 million slaves to their West Indian possessions.

1801

Slave revolt on Tobago.

1805

The House of Commons passes a bill that makes it unlawful for any British subject to capture and transport slaves, but the measure is blocked by the House of Lords.

Slave revolt on Trinidad.

1806

Abolition of the Slave Trade Bill passes both the House of Lords (41 votes to 20) and the House of Commons (114 to 15).

1807

From 1662, British and British colonial ships have purchased an estimated 3,415,000 Africans, of whom 2,964,800 have survived the ‘Middle Passage’ (between Africa and the Western Hemisphere) and have been sold into slavery in the Americas.

25 March: Abolition of the Slave Trade Act becomes law. British captains who are caught continuing the trade are fined £100 (about £5,000 today) for every slave found on board.

According to BBC News, ‘The British were the first big slave-trading nation to abandon the trade. They did this in 1807 when there were still huge profits to be made, and they did it for mainly moral reasons. It took a revolution of the slaves to destroy France's system and a terrible civil war in the US decided the fate of the slaves of the southern states. In Britain alone, slavery was ended by millions of people, black and white, free and enslaved, who decided it could no longer be tolerated.’

The Royal Navy positions ships along the west coast of Africa and east Africa and the Caribbean to enforce the ban. However, this does not stop the British slave trade. If slave ships are in danger of being captured by the navy, captains often reduce the fines they have to pay by ordering their slaves to be thrown into the sea. Slaves are still being intercepted into the 1880s.

Thomas Clarkson publishes his book History of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade. He, Granville Sharp and Thomas Fowell Buxton form the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery.

The United States bans the slave trade, to take effect the following year, but not slavery itself.

1808

The British West Africa Squadron is established at Sierra Leone to suppress any illegal slave trading by British citizens.

1810

Participation in the slave trade is made a felony in the UK.

1816

Bussa's Rebellion in Barbados: Some 400 slaves and free mulattoes, who had believed that the 1807 Act was intended to free them, destroy 20% of the island's sugar crop before being brutally crushed. 176 slaves die in the uprising (including their leader Bussa) and another 214 are executed.

1817

23 September: Britain and Spain sign a treaty prohibiting the slave trade. Spain agrees to end the slave trade north of the equator immediately, and south of the equator in 1820. British naval vessels are given right to search suspected slavers.

Slave Registration Act forces all slave owners to provide a list every two years of all the enslaved people they own.

Le Louis case: British courts establish the principal that British naval vessels cannot search foreign vessels suspected of slaving unless permitted by their respective countries – a ruling that hampers British efforts to suppress the slave trade.

1820

The US makes slave trading piracy, punishable by death.

1823

The Anti-Slavery Society is formed by Thomas Clarkson, Henry Brougham, William Wilberforce and Thomas Fowell Buxton.

A rising by at least 10,000 slaves in Demerara in South America is brutally suppressed by British forces: 250 enslaved people die, 33 are executed and the Rev. John Smith of the London Missionary Society is sentenced to death for his part, causing outrage in Britain. As William Wilberforce tries to organise a reprieve, Smith dies in prison.

1824

Elizabeth Heyrick publishes her pamphlet Immediate not Gradual Abolition, which argues passionately for the immediate emancipation of the slaves in the British colonies.

Britain and the US negotiate a treaty recognising the slave trade as piracy and establishing procedures for joint suppression. But in a series of amendments, the US Senate undercuts the treaty's force, and the British refuse to sign.

1825

The Birmingham Ladies Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves is formed, and is quickly followed by the formation of numerous other women's anti-slavery societies in Britain – 73 by 1831. The campaign to end slavery is dominated by women. With no vote, it is one of the few ways that women are able to get involved in politics.

1827

Britain declares the slave trade piracy, punishable by death.

1830

May: The Anti-Slavery Society agrees to drop the aim of 'gradual abolition'.

1831

25 December: A major slave revolt called ‘The Baptist War’ breaks out in Jamaica, led by black Baptist preacher (and slave) Sam Sharpe, and is brutally suppressed: 200 slaves are killed during the revolt and 344 (including Sharpe) are executed afterwards.

The History of Mary Prince – the first account of the life of a black woman to appear in the UK – is published in London and becomes an important part of the anti-slavery literature.

1832

The Great Reform Act results in new Members of Parliament from groups who are more likely to oppose slavery.

1833

Slavery Abolition Act is passed, coming into force in 1834. It forbids the possession of enslaved people within the British empire and by British subjects. All slaves over the age of six become ‘indentured labourers’ and have to serve an apprenticeship before receiving full emancipation in 1838. A total of £20,000,000 is awarded to the planters as compensation; the former slaves get nothing.

1835

28 June: Anglo-Spanish agreement on the slave trade is renewed, and enforcement is tightened. British cruisers are authorised to arrest suspected Spanish slavers and bring them before mixed commissions established at Sierra Leone and Havana.

1863

1 January: While civil war rages between the North and the South, US President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in the southern states. They only achieve their freedom as the Union army advances through the Confederacy. By the end of the civil war in 1865, a total of some 4 million slaves have been freed.