British Empire 1834

Synopsis

The British Parliament, under the leadership of Prime Minister Earl Grey's Whig government, abolished slavery in the British Empire in 1833, although the slaves were not actually freed until the following year. This act was the culmination of decades of struggle by British abolitionists as well as by rebellious slaves. The freedom granted to hundreds of thousands of slaves, mostly in the Caribbean, was initially incomplete in that many were put forcibly into apprenticeships. The remaining apprenticeships were abolished in 1838, however, and slaves became free laborers. In many areas, the ex-slaves became poor but independent peasants and were replaced as laborers by people from India working under harsh contracts. British slavery abolition contributed to the dissolution of the sugar plantation economy in the British Caribbean and was a key step in the abolition of African slavery in the...