Today in History: Britain Ends the Slave Trade

On this day (March 25) in 1807, the British government abolished the slave trade in its empire. The Slave Trade Act followed the American Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves passed on March 2, 1807. Neither Act ended slavery, merely the importation of new slaves. The British went further than the Americans, actively seeking to get other European and African powers to end the slave trade. They decided to treat slave traders like pirates and they established fines of up to 100 pounds per slave for the captains of ships caught transporting slaves. (Unfortunately, this led captains to throw slaves overboard when they thought they were going to be boarded.) The Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron seized some 1600 slave ships and freed some 150,000 kidnapped Africans between 1808 and 1860.