The Slavery Abolition Act Ends Slavery in the Empire
Parliament frees enslaved people across most of the empire and pays £20 million in compensation to their former owners
Quick facts
- Compensation paid
- About £20 million, to slaveholders
- Enslaved people recorded
- About 800,000, receiving no compensation
- Exemption
- Territories governed by the East India Company
What happened
In August 1833 Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act, ending slavery across most of the British Empire, though not in territories controlled by the East India Company. The Act converted enslaved people into unpaid apprentice labourers bound to their former masters, a status that continued for years after nominal abolition, with only children under six freed immediately. West Indian slaveholders were compensated collectively with £20 million, about 40 percent of British government spending that year, distributed through more than 40,000 separate claims. Around 800,000 enslaved people were recorded in the compensation process; none of them received any payment.
Why it matters
Britain moved from having been the largest transatlantic slave-trading power to legally ending slavery across its empire, but the compensation scheme enshrined in law the idea that enslaved people were property whose loss deserved payment, while the people who had actually been enslaved received nothing and, for years, continued unpaid forced labour under 'apprenticeship'.
How we know
The National Archives holds the compensation claims filed under the 1833 Act, including complaints from estate owners about the payout process, which document both the scale and the moral logic of the settlement.
Sources
- The National Archives (UK). The 1833 Abolition of Slavery Act and compensation claims · Primary source (author-declared)nationalarchives.gov.uk · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- The National Archives (UK). Slavery: How did the Abolition Acts of 1807 and 1833 affect the slave trade? · Reputable sourcenationalarchives.gov.uk · The domain "nationalarchives.gov.uk" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Part of a timelineThe British Empire30 events · From a Tudor sea captain's turf-cutting ceremony in Newfoundland to the last governor sailing out of Hong Kong harbour, four centuries of the largest empire in history, its wealth, and the people it ruled, enslaved, and starvedView all →