This is a complete list of acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for the year 1833 .
64-682: The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 ( 3 & 4 Will. 4 . c. 73) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which provided for the gradual abolition of slavery in most parts of the British Empire . Passed by Earl Grey 's reforming administration, it expanded the jurisdiction of the Slave Trade Act 1807 and made the purchase or ownership of slaves illegal within the British Empire, with
128-644: A short title , e.g. the Local Government Act 2003. Some earlier acts also have a short title given to them by later acts, such as by the Short Titles Act 1896 . The first session of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom , which met from 29 January 1833 until 29 August 1833. This session was also traditionally cited as 3 & 4 W. 4 or 3 & 4 Wm. 4 . Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807 (2 Stat. 426 , enacted March 2, 1807)
192-402: A crewman on a slave ship and subsequent religious conversion , which inspired his writing of the poem later used in the hymn. Newton is portrayed as a major influence on Wilberforce and the abolition movement. The Act is referenced in the 2010 novel The Long Song by British author Andrea Levy and in the 2018 BBC television adaptation of the same name . The novel and television series tell
256-541: A federal crime. The domestic slave trade within the United States was not affected by the 1807 law. Indeed, with the legal supply of imported slaves terminated, the domestic trade increased in importance. In addition, some smuggling of slaves persisted . The Act affected only the import or export of slaves, and did not affect the internal trade in states or between states. During the American Revolution, all of
320-771: A new MP successfully introduced the Slave Trade Felony Act 1811 which at last made the overseas slave trade a felony throughout the empire. The Royal Navy established the West Africa Squadron to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa. It did suppress the slave trade, but did not stop it entirely. Between 1808 and 1860, the West Africa Squadron captured 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans. They resettled many in Jamaica and
384-515: A part of their stratagem to divide the nation and create a slaveholding confederacy. Among other things, the Fire-Eaters hoped that a reopened international slave trade would incense the North, and that Northern outrage would cause white Southerns to unite and move toward secession." In addition to whipping up sectional tensions, Fire-Eaters advocated the reopening of the slave trade in order to drive down
448-563: A re-opening of the trade as a logical extension of the support for slavery. Southerners reasoned that, if slavery was good, then putting more people into slavery must also be good, and that, if trading slaves in the South was okay, then trading them from Africa must also be okay. Conventions of Southern planters repeatedly called for the trade to re-open. This, of course, was a non-starter in Congress. There were also attempts from state legislatures to allow
512-439: A week before William Wilberforce died. It received royal assent a month later, on 28 August, and came into force the following year, on 1 August 1834. In practical terms, only slaves below the age of six were freed in the colonies. Former slaves over the age of six were redesignated as " apprentices ", and their servitude was gradually abolished in two stages: the first set of apprenticeships came to an end on 1 August 1838, while
576-553: A £15 million loan, finalised on 3 August 1835, with banker Nathan Mayer Rothschild and his brother-in-law Moses Montefiore ; £5 million was paid out directly in government stock, worth £1.5 billion in present day. There have been claims the money was not paid back by the British taxpayers until 2015, however this claim is based on a technicality as to how the British Government financed their debt though undated gilts. According to
640-525: Is a United States federal law that prohibited the importation of slaves into the United States. It took effect on January 1, 1808, the earliest date permitted by the United States Constitution . This legislation was promoted by President Thomas Jefferson , who called for its enactment in his 1806 State of the Union Address . He and others had promoted the idea since the 1770s. It reflected
704-450: Is a 2006 British-American biographical drama film directed by Michael Apted , about the campaign against the slave trade in the British Empire , led by William Wilberforce , who was responsible for steering anti-slave trade legislation through the British parliament . The title is a reference to the 1772 hymn " Amazing Grace ". The film also recounts the experiences of John Newton as
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#1733055829720768-509: Is possible that U.S. citizens "may have transported twice as many Africans to other countries such as Cuba and Brazil as they did to their own ports". The U.S. Navy was slow to institute anti-slaving patrols off the slave ports of Africa—it was not until the 1820 legislation that authority was given to the president to use naval vessels for this task. Even then, enforcement activity was sporadic and largely ineffective. The U.S. position meant that many slave ships from other countries falsely flew
832-630: Is supposed, by the best informed persons I was able to consult, to be, on an average, at least one in eight, that is about ten millions . Many consider them twice as numerous. A successor organisation to the Anti-Slavery Society was formed in London in 1839, the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society , which worked to outlaw slavery worldwide. The world's oldest international human rights organisation, it continues today as Anti-Slavery International . Clandestine slave trading still continued within
896-581: The Province of Massachusetts Bay , and thus helped launch the movement to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire. The case ruled that slavery had no legal status in England as it had no common law or statutory law basis, and as such someone could not legally be a slave in England. However, many campaigners, including Granville Sharp , took the view that the ratio decidendi of the Somerset case meant that slavery
960-404: The Slave Trade Act of 1794 , which prohibited making, loading, outfitting, equipping or dispatching of any ship to be used in the trade of slaves, essentially limiting the trade to foreign ships. On August 5, 1797, John Brown of Providence, Rhode Island became the first American to be tried in federal court under the 1794 law. Brown was convicted and was forced to forfeit his ship Hope . In
1024-649: The Smithsonian 's National Museum of African American History and Culture to create a film which debuted at the museum's opening on 24 September 2016. This film, 28 August: A Day in the Life of a People , tells of six significant events in African-American history that happened on the same date, 28 August. Events depicted include (among others) William IV's royal assent to the Slavery Abolition Act. Amazing Grace
1088-578: The Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1998 . The repeal has not made slavery legal again, sections of the Slave Trade Act 1824 , Slave Trade Act 1843 and Slave Trade Act 1873 continuing in force. In its place the Human Rights Act 1998 incorporates into British Law Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights which prohibits the holding of persons as slaves. Ava DuVernay was commissioned by
1152-624: The Thirteen Colonies prohibited their involvement in the international slave trade (some also internally abolished slavery), but three states later reopened the international slave trade again ( North Carolina banned slave imports in 1794, and strengthened the law in 1795. Georgia received transatlantic slave ships until 1798. South Carolina reopened the transatlantic slave trade in December 1803 and imported 39,075 enslaved people of African descent between 1804 and 1808 ). Article 1 Section 9 of
1216-573: The West India Committee , purchased enough seats to be able to resist the overtures of abolitionists. However, the Reform Act 1832 swept away their rotten borough seats, clearing the way for a majority of members of the House of Commons to push through a law to abolish slavery itself throughout the British Empire. The Act passed its second reading in the House of Commons unopposed on 22 July 1833, just
1280-480: The abolitionists , who affirmed the immorality of both slavery and the slave trade. The view alarmed even pro-slavery figures, such as former President John Tyler , who in retirement wrote a widely republished letter condemning the Fire-Eaters' call to abrogate Article 8 of the Webster–Ashburton Treaty (which barred the slave trade). Tyler noted that the South had voted to ratify the treaty. Slavery and
1344-514: The list of acts of the Parliament of Northern Ireland . The number shown after each act's title is its chapter number. Acts passed before 1963 are cited using this number, preceded by the year(s) of the reign during which the relevant parliamentary session was held; thus the Union with Ireland Act 1800 is cited as "39 & 40 Geo. 3 c. 67", meaning the 67th act passed during the session that started in
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#17330558297201408-404: The "violations of human rights." He said: I congratulate you, fellow-citizens, on the approach of the period at which you may interpose your authority constitutionally, to withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further participation in those violations of human rights which have been so long continued on the unoffending inhabitants of Africa, and which the morality, the reputation, and
1472-696: The 1798 act creating the Mississippi Territory , Congress allowed slaves to be transferred from the rest of the United States to Mississippi Territory, and exempted the territory from the part of the 1787 Northwest Ordinance that abolished slavery in the Northwest Territory (modern-day Midwest ) after 1800. However, the same act also abolished the importation of slaves to the Mississippi Territory from "foreign parts" (foreign nations). The penalty for illegally importing slaves from abroad to
1536-571: The 1831 rebellion, the British Parliament held two inquiries. The results of these inquiries contributed greatly to the abolition of slavery with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. Up until then, sugar planters from rich British islands such as the Colony of Jamaica and Barbados were able to buy rotten and pocket boroughs , and they were able to form a body of resistance to moves to abolish slavery itself. This West India Lobby, which later evolved into
1600-667: The 1833 Abolition Act are listed in a Parliamentary Return, entitled Slavery Abolition Act, which is an account of all moneys awarded by the Commissioners of Slave Compensation in the Parliamentary Papers 1837–8 (215) vol. 48. As a notable exception to the rest of the British Empire, the Act did not extend to any of the territories administered by the East India Company , including the islands of Ceylon and Saint Helena , in which
1664-462: The 39th year of the reign of George III and which finished in the 40th year of that reign. The modern convention is to use Arabic numerals in citations (thus "41 Geo. 3" rather than "41 Geo. III"). Acts of the last session of the Parliament of Great Britain and the first session of the Parliament of the United Kingdom are both cited as "41 Geo. 3". Acts passed from 1963 onwards are simply cited by calendar year and chapter number. All modern acts have
1728-812: The Act, January 1, 1808, was celebrated by Peter Williams, Jr. , in "An Oration on the Abolition of the Slave Trade" delivered in New York City . While there are no exact figures known, historians estimate that up to 50,000 slaves were illegally imported into the United States after 1808, mostly through Spanish Florida and Texas , before those states were admitted to the Union . However, South Carolina Governor Henry Middleton estimated in 1819 that 13,000 smuggled African slaves arrived every year. Carl C. Cutler's classic book on American clippers records: The act outlawing
1792-591: The American flag to avoid being seized by British anti-slaving patrols . The first U.S. warship sent to the African coast to intercept U.S. vessels operating in the illegal trade was the USS Cyane . A total of five U.S. Navy ships were on station there in 1820 and 1821, arresting 11 American slavers. No further U.S. anti-slaving patrols were carried out until 1842, and then with limited effectiveness due to political pressure from
1856-610: The Anti-Slavery Society. During the Christmas holiday of 1831, a large-scale slave revolt in Jamaica, known as the Baptist War , broke out. It was organised originally as a peaceful strike by the Baptist minister Samuel Sharpe . The rebellion was suppressed by the militia of the Jamaican plantocracy and the British garrison ten days later in early 1832. Because of the loss of property and life in
1920-566: The Bahamas. Britain also used its influence to coerce other countries to agree to treaties to end their slave trade and allow the Royal Navy to seize their slave ships . Between 1807 and 1823, abolitionists showed little interest in abolishing slavery itself. Eric Williams presented economic data in Capitalism and Slavery to show that the slave trade itself generated only small profits compared to
1984-557: The British Empire despite its illegality. In 1854, Nathaniel Isaacs , owner of the island of Matakong off the coast of Sierra Leone , was accused of slave trading by the governor of Sierra Leone, Sir Arthur Kennedy . Papers relating to the charges were lost when the Forerunner was wrecked off Madeira in October 1854. Due to the absence of the papers, the English courts refused to proceed with
Slavery Abolition Act 1833 - Misplaced Pages Continue
2048-562: The Empire such as the West Indies. In 1785, English poet William Cowper wrote: We have no slaves at home – Then why abroad? Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free. They touch our country, and their shackles fall. That's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud. And jealous of the blessing. Spread it then, And let it circulate through every vein. By 1783, an anti-slavery movement to abolish
2112-555: The Parliament of Scotland . For acts passed from 1707 to 1800, see the list of acts of the Parliament of Great Britain . See also the list of acts of the Parliament of Ireland . For acts of the devolved parliaments and assemblies in the United Kingdom, see the list of acts of the Scottish Parliament , the list of acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly , and the list of acts and measures of Senedd Cymru ; see also
2176-585: The States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person. By 1775, Africans both free and enslaved made up 20% of the population in the Thirteen Colonies, which made them the second-largest ethnic group after English Americans . In 1774,
2240-475: The Treasury the 1837 slave debts were subsumed into a consolidated 4% loan issued in 1927 (maturing in 1957 or after). It was only when the British government modernised the gilt portfolio in 2015 by redeeming all remaining undated gilts was there complete certainty that the debt was extinguished. The long gap between this money being borrowed and certainty of repayment was due to the type of financial instrument that
2304-583: The United States Constitution protected a state's involvement in the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years from federal prohibition. Article 5 said that this clause could not be affected by constitutional amendment. Only starting on January 1, 1808, could there be a federal law to abolish the international slave trade in all states, although individual states could and did ban it before such time. The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of
2368-406: The best interests of our country, have long been eager to proscribe. Under Varnum's leadership, legislation moved through Congress and passed both houses on March 2, 1807. The House and Senate agreed on a bill, approved on March 2, 1807, called An Act to prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States, from and after the first day of January, in
2432-405: The company had been independently regulating, and in part prohibiting the slave trade since 1774; with regulations prohibiting the enslavement, the sale without a written deed, and the transport of slaves into company territory prohibited over the period. The Indian Slavery Act, 1843 went on to prohibit company employees from owning, or dealing in slaves, along with granting limited protection under
2496-399: The cotton economy boomed during the 1850s, and cotton prices were resurgent after a decline in the 1840s. This, in turn, drove up the price of slaves, which led to further pressure to re-open the slave trade to meet demand or bring down prices. Not all Southerners felt this way, however, as the high price of slaves benefitted slave owners and slave merchants. But the general sentiment called for
2560-610: The exception of "the Territories in the Possession of the East India Company ", Ceylon (now Sri Lanka ), and Saint Helena . The Act came into force on 1 August 1834, and was repealed in 1998 as a part of wider rationalisation of English statute law; however, later anti-slavery legislation remains in force. In May 1772, Lord Mansfield 's judgment in the Somerset case emancipated a slave who had been brought to England from Boston in
2624-522: The final apprenticeships were scheduled to cease on 1 August 1840. The Act specifically excluded "the Territories in the Possession of the East India Company , or to the Island of Ceylon , or to the Island of Saint Helena ." The exceptions were eliminated in 1843 with the Indian Slavery Act, 1843 . The Act provided for compensation to slave-owners, but not to slaves. The amount of money to be spent on
Slavery Abolition Act 1833 - Misplaced Pages Continue
2688-476: The force of the general trend toward abolishing the international slave trade , which Virginia , followed by all the other states , had prohibited or restricted since then. South Carolina , however, had reopened its trade. Congress first regulated against the trade in the Slave Trade Act of 1794 . The 1794 Act ended the legality of American ships participating in the trade. The 1807 law did not change that—it made all importation from abroad, even on foreign ships,
2752-461: The industry. In 1807, Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act of 1807 , which outlawed the international slave trade, but not slavery itself. The legislation was timed to coincide with the expected Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves by the United States, Britain's chief rival in maritime commerce. This legislation imposed fines that did little to deter slave trade participants. Abolitionist Henry Brougham realised that trading had continued, and as
2816-548: The influential, revolutionary Fairfax Resolves , called for an end to the "wicked, cruel, and unnatural" Atlantic slave trade . During the Revolutionary War , the United Colonies all pledged to ban their involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. This was done for a variety of economic, political, and moral reasons depending on the colony. After the American victory in 1783, South Carolina reopened its involvement in
2880-519: The larger ports. In 1820, slave trading became a capital offense with an amendment to the 1819 Act to Protect the Commerce of the United States and Punish the Crime of Piracy . A total of 74 cases of slaving were brought in the United States between 1837 and 1860, "but few captains had been convicted, and those had received trifling sentences, which they had usually been able to avoid". Nathaniel Gordon , who
2944-617: The law, that included the ability for a slave to own, transfer or inherit property, notionally benefitting the 8 to 10 million that were estimated to exist in company territory, to quote Rev. Howard Malcom : The number of slaves in the Carnatic, Mysore, and Malabar, is said to be greater than in most other parts of India, and embraces nearly the whole of the Punchum Bundam caste. The whole number in British India has never been ascertained, but
3008-399: The local Legislative Assembly , it was the first legislation to outlaw the slave trade in a part of the British Empire. By the late 18th century, Britain was simultaneously the largest slave trader and centre of the largest abolitionist movement. William Wilberforce had written in his diary in 1787 that his great purpose in life was to suppress the slave trade before waging a 20-year fight on
3072-924: The much more lucrative sugar plantations of the Caribbean, and therefore slavery continued to thrive on those estates. However, from 1823 the British Caribbean sugar industry went into terminal decline, and the British parliament no longer felt they needed to protect the economic interests of the West Indian sugar planters. In 1823, the Anti-Slavery Society was founded in London. Members included Joseph Sturge , Thomas Clarkson , William Wilberforce , Henry Brougham , Thomas Fowell Buxton , Elizabeth Heyrick , Mary Lloyd , Jane Smeal , Elizabeth Pease , and Anne Knight . Jamaican mixed-race campaigners such as Louis Celeste Lecesne and Richard Hill were also members of
3136-411: The new laws, began chanting: "Pas de six ans. Point de six ans" ("Not six years. No six years"), drowning out the voice of the governor. Peaceful protests continued until a resolution to abolish apprenticeship was passed and de facto freedom was achieved. Full emancipation for all was legally granted ahead of schedule on 1 August 1838. The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 was repealed in its entirety by
3200-460: The payments was set at "the Sum of Twenty Million Pounds Sterling". Under the terms of the Act, the British government raised £20 million to pay out for the loss of the slaves as business assets to the registered owners of the freed slaves. In 1833, £20 million amounted to 40% of the Treasury's annual income or approximately 5% of British GDP at the time. To finance the payments, the British government took on
3264-525: The price of slaves; to balance the millions of European immigrants who had settled in the North and maintain Southern representation in Congress; and assert the morality of slavery: "Slave trading had to be made right, otherwise slavery was imperiled." Fire-Eaters essentially desired to "legitimize the slave trade in order to make the point that both slavery and the African slave trade were morally acceptable practices"—a view intended to be precisely opposite that of
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#17330558297203328-459: The prosecution. The Act also did not outlaw other forms of forced labour like indentured servitude and blackbirding . Modern slavery, both in the form of human trafficking and people imprisoned for forced or compulsory labour, continues to this day. On 1 August 1834, an unarmed group of mainly elderly people being addressed by the governor at Government House in Port of Spain , Trinidad , about
3392-529: The slave trade in 1808 furnished another source of demand for fast vessels, and for another half century ships continued to be fitted out and financed in this trade by many a respectable citizen in the majority of American ports. Newspapers of the fifties contain occasional references to the number of ships sailing from the various cities in this traffic. One account stated that as late as 1859 there were seven slavers regularly fitted out in New York, and many more in all
3456-599: The slave trade throughout the Empire had begun among the British public, with the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade being established in 1787. The Wedgwood anti-slavery medallion by Josiah Wedgwood , was, according to the BBC, "the most famous image of a black person in all of 18th-century art". Fellow abolitionist Thomas Clarkson wrote: "Of the ladies several wore them in bracelets, and others had them fitted up in an ornamental manner as pins for their hair. At length,
3520-428: The slave trade until prohibiting it again in 1787, but then reopened it in 1803; while North Carolina allowed the trade beginning after the Treaty of Paris (1783) until abolishing its involvement in slave trading in 1794; and Georgia allowed the slave trade between 1783, until it closed its international trade in 1798. By 1807, only South Carolina allowed the Atlantic slave trade. On March 22, 1794, Congress passed
3584-462: The slave-owning states. The Atlantic slave trade was not ended until the U.S. Civil War, when American-built and -managed ships were prevented from operating. In the South, the Fire-Eaters —antebellum pro-slavery extremists—proposed repealing the act and once more legalizing the international slave trade in the United States. Historian Erskine Clarke writes that this call "was a shameless expression of their contempt for any antislavery sentiment and
3648-411: The story of a slave in colonial Jamaica who lives through the period of slavery abolition in the British West Indies. 3 %26 4 Will. 4 The first parliament of the United Kingdom was held in 1801; parliaments between 1707 and 1800 were either parliaments of Great Britain or of Ireland ). For acts passed up until 1707, see the list of acts of the Parliament of England and the list of acts of
3712-439: The taste for wearing them became general; and thus fashion, which usually confines itself to worthless things, was seen for once in the honourable office of promoting the cause of justice, humanity and freedom." Spurred by an incident involving Chloe Cooley , a slave woman brought to Canada by an American loyalist , the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada , John Graves Simcoe , tabled the Act Against Slavery in 1793. Passed by
3776-505: The territory was a fine of $ 300. In the Slave Trade Act of 1800 , Congress outlawed U.S. citizens' investment in the trade and the employment of U.S. citizens on ships involved in the trade. On March 3, 1805, Joseph Bradley Varnum submitted a Massachusetts Proposition to amend the Constitution and Abolish the Slave Trade. This proposition was tabled until 1807. On December 2, 1806, in his annual message to Congress, widely reprinted in most newspapers, President Thomas Jefferson denounced
3840-400: The year of our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eight. The measure also regulated the coastwise slave trade . President Thomas Jefferson signed the bill into law on March 2, 1807. Many in Congress believed the act would doom slavery in the South, but they were mistaken. The role of the Navy was expanded to include patrols off the coasts of Cuba and South America. The effective date of
3904-418: Was hanged in 1862, was the only person to be executed for illegal slave-trading in the United States. In addition, after the 1808 abolition of the slave trade to the United States, many Americans continued to engage in the slave trade by transporting Africans to Cuba. From 1808 to 1860, almost one-third of all slave ships either were owned by American merchants or were built and outfitted in American ports. It
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#17330558297203968-463: Was spread over many hundreds of British families, many of them (though not all) of high social standing. For example, Henry Phillpotts (then the Bishop of Exeter ), with three others (as trustees and executors of the will of John Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley ), was paid £12,700 for 665 slaves in the West Indies, whilst Henry Lascelles, 2nd Earl of Harewood received £26,309 for 2,554 slaves on 6 plantations. The majority of men and women who were paid under
4032-429: Was unsupported by law within England and that no ownership could be exercised on slaves entering English or Scottish soil. Ignatius Sancho , who in 1774 became the first known person of African descent to vote in a British general election, wrote a letter in 1778 that opens in praise of Britain for its "freedom – and for the many blessings I enjoy in it", before criticizing the actions towards his black brethren in parts of
4096-421: Was used, rather than the amount of money borrowed. Regardless, this does not contradict the fact that, in practical terms, taxpayer's money serviced the debt originated from the Slavery Abolition Act. Half of the money went to slave-owning families in the Caribbean and Africa, while the other half went to absentee owners living in Britain. The names listed in the returns for slave owner payments show that ownership
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