XDA: This Day in the History of Real Social Progress

Thursday, August 23, 2007

This Day in the History of Real Social Progress

On this day in 1833, Great Britain abolished slavery in all its territory and colonies with the Abolition of Slavery Act, and nearly 700,000 slaves were freed. This was the death knell for slavery throughout the world, an institution that had existed from time immemorial--it was gone (at least on paper) by 1865. This Act of Parliament followed on the 1807 Abolition of the Slave Trade Act which merely fined ship captains for carrying slaves, but freed no slaves.

Labels: British Slavery