1807–1833Reputable sourceWell documented
The Abolition of Slavery
On the timeline · around 1807–1833 ·
What happened
After decades of campaigning by abolitionists and enslaved people themselves, Parliament banned the British slave trade in 1807 and then abolished slavery across most of the empire in 1833. The Royal Navy began patrolling the Atlantic to suppress the trade — though slaveholders, not the enslaved, received compensation.
Why it matters
Britain moved from being the world's largest slave-trading nation to a leading force for abolition, a profound moral and political turning point — even as the empire's earlier profits from slavery had already been banked.
Sources
- UK Parliament. Parliament and the British Slave Trade · Reputable source