Latest / The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering — Fexingo History / Britain's 1807 Abolition Act: Impact on the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've covered a lot of ground in this series — the horrors of the Middle Passage, the forts on the Gold Coast, the rebellions, the illegal trade after 1808. But I want to zoom in on something we've touched on but never fully unpacked: what happened after Britain banned the slave trade in 1807. It's a story of good intentions, brutal realities, and a whole lot of diplomatic mess. Luna: Right, because just passing a law doesn't make slavery disappear. Lucas: Exactly. And in Britain's case, they had been the world's leading slave-trading nation for decades — they'd shipped more enslaved Africans than any other country. So when Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act in 1807, it was a massive about-face. But enforcing that ban was a whole other challenge. The Royal Navy created the West Africa Squadron, initially just a handful of ships tasked with patrolling thousands of miles of coastline. Lucas: The Squadron started small — at first only two ships, the HMS Solebay and the HMS Derwent. They were supposed to intercept slavers, but the slavers were often faster, better armed, and knew the waters intimately. And the Squadron had no legal authority to stop ships flying other flags. So Portuguese, Spanish, American vessels could just keep trading. Luna: So Britain's ban only applied to British ships? Lucas: Initially, yes. But Britain used its diplomatic muscle to pressure other nations. Over the next few decades, they signed treaties with Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, and others, granting each other the 'Right of Search' — the right to stop and inspect suspected slavers. But enforcement was patchy and often contested. The Americans, for instance, were fiercely opposed to the Royal Navy boarding their ships, leading to major tensions. Lucas: To handle the legal side, Britain set up Mixed Commission courts in places like Freetown, Sierra Leone, Havana, and Rio de Janeiro. These courts were supposed to adjudicate captured slave ships. If found guilty, the ship was condemned, and the enslaved people on board were freed — at least in theory. Freetown became the main hub, and thousands of 'recaptives' were landed there. Luna: Recaptives — that's what they called the freed enslaved people, right? Lucas: Yes. And their experiences varied hugely. Some were absorbed into the local population, others joined the military or became labourers. But the system was overwhelmed. The court in Freetown processed hundreds of cases, but the number of slaves rescued was a drop in the ocean compared to the total still being trafficked. Luna: Did the Squadron actually make a dent? Lucas: That's the big question. On one hand, the Squadron captured over 1,600 slave ships and freed around 150,000 people between 1807 and 1860. That's significant. But historians estimate that over 3 million Africans were still transported across the Atlantic during that same period, many in the illegal trade. So it was a constant game of cat and mouse. Slavers adapted by using faster ships, like the Baltimore clippers, and by falsifying flags. Lucas: One notorious example is the slave ship Clara, captured by HMS Conflict in 1829. The Clara was a Baltimore-built schooner, incredibly fast. She had been fitted out in Havana with a 'slave deck' — a temporary platform to pack in more people. When the British boarded, the crew claimed she was a Spanish ship, but the papers were fake. The court in Freetown condemned her, and the 500 enslaved people on board were freed. Luna: But that was just one ship. There must have been thousands that got through. Lucas: Absolutely. And the Squadron was chronically underfunded. For the first few decades, it was a low priority for the Admiralty. Officers hated the posting — the African coast was notoriously unhealthy, with malaria and yellow fever killing many. Morale was low. And there was corruption too: some captains took bribes to look the other way, or they were just outgunned by well-armed slavers. Lucas: There's also a darker side to the British anti-slavery campaign. As they pushed for abolition internationally, they also used it as a diplomatic tool to undermine rivals. For instance, Britain pressured Portugal and Spain to restrict their slave trades, but in exchange, they demanded trade concessions or territorial advantages. Some historians argue that British anti-slavery was as much about economic imperialism as humanitarianism. Luna: So it wasn't purely altruistic. Lucas: Not entirely. And back home, the abolitionist movement had to keep up the momentum. After 1807, the focus shifted to abolishing slavery itself in the British colonies — which eventually happened in 1833. But in the meantime, figures like Thomas Fowell Buxton campaigned for stronger enforcement and for ending the 'apprenticeship' system that replaced slavery. Lucas: The 1833 Slavery Abolition Act didn't free anyone immediately — it set up a four- to six-year apprenticeship period, keeping former slaves bound to their masters. And it compensated the slave owners, not the enslaved. The British government paid out £20 million — a huge sum — to slave owners in the Caribbean, while the freed people got nothing. Luna: That's infuriating but not surprising. Lucas: No. And the apprenticeship system was so brutal that it sparked protests and rebellions. It was finally ended early, in 1838. But even after that, the legacy of the slave trade persisted. The West Africa Squadron continued its work until the 1860s, by which point the illegal trade was mostly suppressed. But the damage was done — the demographic, economic, and social scars across Africa and the Americas remain to this day. Luna: So the 1807 Act was a start, but it took decades of naval patrols, diplomacy, and political pressure to really end the Atlantic slave trade. Lucas: Exactly. And even then, it wasn't a clean break. The last known slave ship to reach the United States was the Clotilda in 1860, decades after the import ban. And slavery itself continued in Brazil until 1888, and in Cuba until 1886. The British campaign against the slave trade was a monumental effort, but it's a story full of contradictions — genuine moral courage mixed with imperial self-interest, and a system that was never as effective as its advocates hoped. Luna: It makes you think about how hard it is to undo a system that's so deeply entrenched. Lucas: Absolutely. And that's something we'll keep coming back to as we explore other aspects of this history. Thanks for listening to this episode of Fexingo History.