The Abolitionists Who Betrayed the Enslaved

The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering — Fexingo History · Sep 25, 2026 · 6m · transcript

We often remember the abolitionist movement as a unified moral crusade, but the reality was fractured by race and strategy. This episode explores the painful schism between white abolitionists like William Wilberforce and black activists such as Olaudah Equiano and the British Sons of Africa. While Wilberforce focused on parliamentary legislation to end the trade, black abolitionists argued for immediate emancipation and political equality, fearing that gradualism would leave them in perpetual servitude. We examine how figures like Granville Sharp navigated these tensions and why the eventual…