Act of Parliament | |
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Long title | An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. |
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Citation | 47 Geo. 3 Sess. 1. c. 36 |
Introduced by | William Grenville |
Territorial extent | British Empire |
Dates | |
Royal assent | 25 March 1807 |
Other legislation | |
Repealed by | Statute Law Revision Act 1861 |
Status: Repealed |
Part of a series on |
Forced labour and slavery |
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The Slave Trade Act 1807, officially An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade,[1] was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom prohibiting the slave trade in the British Empire. Although it did not automatically emancipate those enslaved at the time, it encouraged British action to press other nation states to abolish their own slave trades. It took effect on 1 May 1807, after 18 years of trying to pass an abolition bill.[2]
Many of the supporters thought the Act would lead to the end of slavery.[3] Slavery on English soil was unsupported in English law and that position was confirmed in Somerset's case in 1772, but it remained legal in most of the British Empire until the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833.
Hansard
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).