Slavery Abolition Act 1833

{{short description|Law which abolished slavery in most of the British Empire}}

{{Infobox UK legislation

| short_title = Slavery Abolition Act 1833

| type = Act

| parliament = Parliament of the United Kingdom

| long_title = An Act for the Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Colonies; for promoting the Industry of the manumitted Slaves; and for compensating the Persons hitherto entitled to the Services of such Slaves

| year = 1833

| citation = 3 & 4 Will. 4. c. 73

| territorial_extent = United Kingdom

| introduced_commons = Prime Minister Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey

| royal_assent = 28 August 1833

| commencement = 1 August 1834{{efn|Section 1.}}

| amendments = {{ubli|Court of Chancery (Funds) Act 1872|Statute Law Revision Act 1874}}

| repealing_legislation = Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1998

| status = Repealed

| original_text = https://www.pdavis.nl/Legis_07.htm

| revised_text = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Will4/3-4/73

}}

The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will. 4. c. 73) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which abolished slavery in the British Empire by way of compensated emancipation. The act was legislated by Whig Prime Minister Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey's reforming administration, and it was enacted by ordering the British government to purchase the freedom of all slaves in the British Empire, and by outlawing the further practice of slavery in the British Empire. The act was repealed in 1998 as a part of a broader restructuring of English statute law, though slavery remains abolished.{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Slavery-Abolition-Act | title=Slavery Abolition Act | History & Impact | Britannica }}

Background

File:Charles Grey - 2nd Earl Grey - atop the Grey Momument - Newcastle upon Tyne - England - 140804.jpg in Newcastle upon Tyne, in remembrance of Prime Minister Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, who abolished slavery in the British Empire]]

In May 1772, Lord Mansfield's judgment in the Somerset case emancipated a slave who had been brought to England from Boston in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and thus helped launch the movement to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire.Peter P. Inks, John R. Michigan, R. Owen Williams (2007) Encyclopedia of antislavery and abolition, p. 643. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007{{cite book|last1=Blumrosen|first1=Alfred W|last2=Blumrosen|first2=Ruth G.|title=Slave Nation: How Slavery United the Colonies and Sparked the American Revolution|publisher=Sourcebooks|year=2005|isbn=0760778779}}{{page?|date=July 2023}} 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.Law, Liberty and the Constitution – A Brief History of the Common Law, by Harry Potter; {{ISBN|978-1783275038}}{{page?|date=July 2023}} However, many campaigners, including Granville Sharp, took the view that the ratio decidendi of the Somerset case meant that slavery was unsupported by law within England and that no ownership could be exercised on slaves entering English or Scottish soil.[https://www.commonlii.org/cgi-bin/disp.pl/int/cases/EngR/1827/725.html?stem=0&synonyms=0&query=The%20Slave,%20Grace (1827) 2 Hag Adm 94] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191216000406/https://www.commonlii.org/cgi-bin/disp.pl/int/cases/EngR/1827/725.html?stem=0&synonyms=0&query=The%20Slave,%20Grace |date=16 December 2019 }}.Simon Schama, Rough Crossings (London: BBC Books, 2005), p. 61. {{ISBN?}} 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 the Empire such as the West Indies.{{cite news |title=Record of Ignatius Sancho's vote in the general election, October 1774 |url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/record-of-ignatius-sanchos-vote-in-the-general-election-october-1774 |access-date=7 June 2024 |agency=British Library |archive-date=30 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930142733/https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/record-of-ignatius-sanchos-vote-in-the-general-election-october-1774 |url-status=dead }}{{cite book |author=Ignatius Sancho |url=https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/sancho2/sancho2.html |chapter= |title=Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho |year=1778 }}

= Campaigns =

By 1783, an anti-slavery movement to abolish 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.{{cite web| title=Foundation of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade| website=History of Information| url=https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=3700| access-date=17 January 2021| archive-date=21 January 2021| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121042607/https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=3700| url-status=live}} 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".{{cite web|title = British History – Abolition of the Slave Trade 1807 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/africans_in_art_gallery_02.shtml|publisher = BBC|access-date = 7 June 2024}} 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, 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."{{cite web|title=Wedgwood |url=https://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REwedgwood.htm |access-date=7 June 2024|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090708094050/https://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REwedgwood.htm |archive-date= 8 July 2009 }}

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 the local Legislative Assembly, it was the first legislation to outlaw the slave trade in a part of the British Empire.{{cite web |url=https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/CorporateSite/media/oht/PDFs/Chloe-Cooley-ENG.pdf |title= Chloe Cooley and the 1793 Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada|publisher=Ontario Heritage Trust |access-date= |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170206103609/https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/CorporateSite/media/oht/PDFs/Chloe-Cooley-ENG.pdf |archive-date=6 February 2017 }} By the late 18th century, Britain was simultaneously the largest slave trader and centre of the largest abolitionist movement.{{Cite book|title=Abina and The Important Men, A Graphic History|last1=Getz|first1=Trevor|last2=Clarke|first2=Liz|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016|location=New York|page=122}} 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 the industry.[https://www.cbn.com/special/amazingGrace/articles/Wilberforce-bio.aspx William Wilberforce: A Man for All Seasons] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140426232915/https://www.cbn.com/special/amazingGrace/articles/Wilberforce-bio.aspx |date=26 April 2014 }}. CBN

Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act 1807 (47 Geo. 3 Sess. 1. c. 36), 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 a new MP successfully introduced the Slave Trade Felony Act 1811 (51 Geo. 3. c. 23) 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.[https://www.history.ac.uk/1807commemorated/exhibitions/museums/chasing.html 1807 – The Abolition of Slavery The abolition of the slave trade – Chasing Freedom: The Royal Navy and the suppression of the transatlantic slave trade Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160704153547/https://www.history.ac.uk/1807commemorated/exhibitions/museums/chasing.html |date=4 July 2016 }} history.ac.uk, accessed 30 August 2019 They resettled many in Jamaica and the Bahamas.{{cite web|title=Chasing Freedom Information Sheet |publisher=Royal Naval Museum |url=https://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/visit_see_victory_cfexhibition_infosheet.htm |access-date=2 April 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091210021701/https://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/visit_see_victory_cfexhibition_infosheet.htm |archive-date=10 December 2009 }}{{Cite web|title=Chasing Freedom Exhibition: the Royal Navy and the Suppression of the Transatlantic Slave Trade |publisher=Royal Naval Museum|access-date=25 September 2009 |url=https://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/visit_see_victory_cfexhibition_infosheet.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091210021701/https://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/visit_see_victory_cfexhibition_infosheet.htm |archive-date=10 December 2009 }} 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.{{cite book|last1=Falola|first1=Toyin|last2=Warnock|first2=Amanda|title=Encyclopedia of the middle passage|date=2007|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=978-0313334801|pages=xxi, xxxiii–xxxiv|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UjRYKePKrB8C&pg=PR21}}{{cite web|title=The legal and diplomatic background to the seizure of foreign vessels by the Royal Navy|url=https://www.pdavis.nl/Background.htm#WAS|access-date=16 May 2016|archive-date=10 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100610030306/https://www.pdavis.nl/Background.htm#WAS|url-status=live}}

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 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.Williams, Eric (1964), Capitalism and Slavery (London: Andre Deutsch).

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.[https://www.oup.com/oxforddnb/info/freeodnb/shelves/slavery/ Slavery and abolition]. Oxford University Press{{dead link|date=September 2021}} Jamaican mixed-race campaigners such as Louis Celeste Lecesne and Richard Hill were also members of 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 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.{{cite book|last = Craton|first = Michael|title = Testing the Chains|pages = 319–323|date = 1982|publisher = Cornell University Press |isbn = 978-0801412523}}[https://jis.gov.jm/information/heroes/samuel-sharpe/ Samuel Sharpe] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181205003538/https://jis.gov.jm/information/heroes/samuel-sharpe/ |date=5 December 2018 }} jis.gov.jm, accessed 30 August 2019

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 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.Richard Dunn, A Tale of Two Plantations: Slave Life and Labour in Jamaica and Virginia (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2014), p. 343. {{ISBN?}}

The act

The act passed its second reading in the House of Commons unopposed on 22 July 1833, just a week before William Wilberforce died.{{cite web |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1833/jul/22/ministerial-plan-for-the-abolition-of#S3V0019P0_18330722_HOC_15 |title=Historic Hansard: Ministerial Plan for the Abolition of Slavery HC Dec 22 July 1833 vol 19 cc1056-69 |date=22 July 1833 |access-date=21 January 2021 |archive-date=28 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128032918/https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1833/jul/22/ministerial-plan-for-the-abolition-of#S3V0019P0_18330722_HOC_15 |url-status=live }} 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 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."{{cite web |url=https://www.pdavis.nl/Legis_07.htm |title=Slavery Abolition Act 1833; Section LXIV |date=28 August 1833 |access-date=3 June 2008 |archive-date=24 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080524010152/https://www.pdavis.nl/Legis_07.htm |url-status=live }} The exceptions were eliminated in 1843 with the Indian Slavery Act, 1843.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AA7qj7jbR3oC |title=Mahatma Gandhi and the New Millennium |last=Maharajan |first=M. |date=1 January 2010 |publisher=Discovery Publishing House |isbn=9788171416035 |pages=50 |language=en}}{{cite book |last=Agnew |first=William Fischer |title=The Indian penal code: and other acts of the Governor-general relating to offences, with notes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9u8SAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA325 |access-date=5 September 2011 |year=1898 |publisher=Thacker, Spink, and Co. |location=Calcutta}}

= Payments to slave owners =

{{Main|Slave Compensation Act 1837|London Society of West India Planters and Merchants}}

The act provided for compensation to slave-owners, but not to slaves. The amount of money to be spent on the payments was set at "the Sum of Twenty Million Pounds Sterling".{{cite web|url=https://www.pdavis.nl/Legis_07.htm|title=Slavery Abolition Act 1833; Section XXIV|date=28 August 1833|access-date=3 June 2008|archive-date=24 May 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080524010152/https://www.pdavis.nl/Legis_07.htm|url-status=live}} Under the terms of the act, the British government raised £20 million{{Cite news|author=Sanchez Manning|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/britains-colonial-shame-slave-owners-given-huge-payouts-after-abolition-8508358.html|title=Britain's colonial shame: Slave-owners given huge payouts after|date=24 February 2013|work=The Independent|access-date=11 February 2018|archive-date=12 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212052103/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/britains-colonial-shame-slave-owners-given-huge-payouts-after-abolition-8508358.html|url-status=live}} 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[https://www.ukpublicrevenue.co.uk/piechart_1833_UK_total Public Revenue Details for 1833] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180330211232/https://www.ukpublicrevenue.co.uk/piechart_1833_UK_total |date=30 March 2018 }} ukpublicrevenue.co.uk, accessed 30 August 2019 or approximately 5% of British GDP at the time.{{cite web|url=https://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/piechart_1833_UK_total|title=UK public spending and GDP in 1833|access-date=3 January 2017|archive-date=4 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170104163438/https://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/piechart_1833_UK_total|url-status=live}} To finance the payments, the British government took on 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.{{Cite web|title=Britain's Slave Owner Compensation Loan, reparations and tax havenry|date=9 June 2020|url=https://www.taxjustice.net/2020/06/09/slavery-compensation-uk-questions/,%20https://www.taxjustice.net/2020/06/09/slavery-compensation-uk-questions/|access-date=18 June 2020|language=en-GB|archive-date=29 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210729021319/https://www.taxjustice.net/2020/06/09/slavery-compensation-uk-questions/,%20https:/www.taxjustice.net/2020/06/09/slavery-compensation-uk-questions/|url-status=live}}

There have been claims the money was not paid back by the British taxpayers until 2015,{{cite web |title=FOI response: Slavery Abolition Act 1833 |url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/680456/FOI2018-00186_-_Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833_-_pdf_for_disclosure_log__003_.pdf |publisher=UK Government |access-date=31 January 2018 |archive-date=8 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180508053842/https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/680456/FOI2018-00186_-_Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833_-_pdf_for_disclosure_log__003_.pdf |url-status=live }} however this claim is based on a technicality as to how the British Government financed their debt though undated gilts. According to the Treasury the 1837 slave debts were subsumed into a consolidated 4% loan issued in 1927 (maturing in 1957 or after).{{cite web|url=https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/476031/response/1153635/attach/3/Scan.pdf?cookie_passthrough=1|title=Freedom of Information Act 2000: Slavery Abolition Act 1833|access-date=12 June 2020|archive-date=29 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200829094052/https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/476031/response/1153635/attach/3/Scan.pdf?cookie_passthrough=1|url-status=live}} 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 was used, rather than the amount of money borrowed.{{cite web|url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/680456/FOI2018-00186_-_Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833_-_pdf_for_disclosure_log__003_.pdf|title=Freedom of Information Act 2000: Slavery Abolition Act 1833|access-date=12 June 2020|archive-date=29 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200829094123/https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/680456/FOI2018-00186_-_Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833_-_pdf_for_disclosure_log__003_.pdf|url-status=live}} Regardless, this does not contradict the fact that, in practical terms, taxpayer's money serviced the debt originated from the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.{{cite web|url=https://taxjustice.net/2020/06/09/slavery-compensation-uk-questions/|title=Britain's Slave Owner Compensation Loan, reparations and tax havenry|date=9 June 2020 |access-date=7 July 2023|archive-date=11 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230711082752/https://taxjustice.net/2020/06/09/slavery-compensation-uk-questions/|url-status=live}}

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 was spread over many hundreds of British families,British Parliamentary Papers, session 1837–38 (215), vol. 48. The manuscript returns and indexes to the claims are held by The National Archives. many of them (though not all{{cite web |website = BBC Teach |url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/how-did%C2%A0slave-owners-shape-britain/z67dbdm |title = How did slave owners shape Britain? |access-date = 20 September 2021 |archive-date = 20 September 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210920212657/https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/how-did%C2%A0slave-owners-shape-britain/z67dbdm |url-status = live }}) 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,{{cite web |title=Rt. Hon. Rev. Henry Phillpotts |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/18347 |publisher=UCL, Legacies of British slave-ownership |access-date=11 August 2013 |archive-date=3 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103123943/https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/18347 |url-status=live }} whilst Henry Lascelles, 2nd Earl of Harewood received £26,309 for 2,554 slaves on six plantations.{{cite web|title=Henry Lascelles, 2nd Earl of Harewood|url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/6180|publisher=UCL, Legacies of British slave-ownership|access-date=11 August 2013|archive-date=28 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228090632/https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/6180|url-status=live}} The majority of men and women who were paid under the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 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.{{cite web |url = https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/project/research |publisher = UCL |title = Researching Slave-owners |website = Legacies of British Slavery |access-date = 25 December 2013 |archive-date = 28 December 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131228095523/https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/project/research |url-status = live }}

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.Sharman, Anne-Marie (1993), ed., Anti-Slavery Reporter vol. 13 no. 8. p. 35, London: Anti-Slavery International The world's oldest international human rights organisation, it continues today as Anti-Slavery International.[https://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=9462&URL_DO=DO_PRINTPAGE&URL_SECTION=201.html Anti-Slavery International] {{Webarchive|url=https://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160513171717/https://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=9462&URL_DO=DO_PRINTPAGE&URL_SECTION=201.html |date=13 May 2016 }} UNESCO. Retrieved 12 October 2011.

In popular culture

Ava DuVernay was commissioned by 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.{{cite news|last1=Davis|first1=Rachaell|title=Why Is August 28 So Special To Black People? Ava DuVernay Reveals All In New NMAAHC Film|url=https://www.essence.com/2016/09/22/ava-duvernay-premiere-nmaahc|work=Essence|date=22 September 2016|access-date=29 August 2018|archive-date=16 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180716082304/https://www.essence.com/2016/09/22/ava-duvernay-premiere-nmaahc|url-status=live}}

Amazing Grace 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 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.{{cn|date=August 2021}}

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 the story of a slave in colonial Jamaica who lives through the period of slavery abolition in the British West Indies.

Notes

References

External links

[https://www.pdavis.nl/Legis_07.htm Text of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833]
[https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/ Legacies of British slave-ownership] is a database of the Parliamentary return of people who made claims for compensation under this act

Category:United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1833

Category:Repealed United Kingdom Acts of Parliament

Category:Abolitionism in the United Kingdom

Category:Slavery legislation

Category:Slave trade legislation

Category:August 1833

Category:Black British history

Category:Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey