Campaign to end slavery launched

The first large-scale campaign to abolish slavery across the British Empire is under way, 16 years after Parliament in London banned the transatlantic trade in human beings.

The hope that slavery would wither away after the supply of slaves in British vessels was cut off has been dashed, and campaigners estimate there are 800,000 enslaved people across the empire. More slave colonies have been acquired since 1807, including Dememera on the north coast of South America.

The King’s cousin, the Duke of Gloucester, is to be president of the group set up in London on 31 January.

The new society says it is campaigning for legislation to mitigate and gradually abolish slavery throughout Britain’s overseas colonies and dominions, but it is clear that some among its number, especially younger members, want immediate abolition.

William Wilberforce, the driving force behind abolition of the slave trade, is among founders of the Anti-Slavery Society. But he is 63 and in poor health, and leadership of the political campaign at Westminster is switching to Dorset’s Independent MP, Thomas Fowell Buxton Mr Wilberforce is writing what will amount to a manifesto for the new group and this is expected to be published in March.

Among its other backers are the leading Whig MP Henry Brougham, another veteran campaigner, Thomas Clarkson, and Zachary Macaulay, a onetime slave overseer in Jamaica who has been converted to the anti-slavery cause.

From 2023, 200 appears as a larger magazine in March, June, September and December, and in this shorter format in other months