The Royal Navy and the Battle to End Slavery

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• 1. A new challenge
• 2. West Africa Squadron
• 3. Reporting victories
• 4. The Indian Ocean
• 5. Zanzibar dhow-chasing
• 6. An inglorious crusade
• 7. Find out more
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A new challenge

Prior to the 1807 act that abolished the British slave trade, the Royal Navy was inevitably involved in the trade itself, as a function of protecting the national interest at sea.

The Royal Navy was little different to any large organisation today, with individual officers and men holding differing opinions about slavery. One or two of the more successful naval officers owned plantations in the Americas, and it was also not unknown for officers to have personal slaves on board their ships, although the practice was officially forbidden by the Admiralty.

Contradictorily, the Royal Navy had its own enslaved Africans in its dockyards in Jamaica and Antigua and as part of its job it escorted slave ships down the African coast and fought major battles for control of the valuable 'sugar islands' of the West Indies.

'It took nearly 60 years of untiring diplomacy and naval patrolling to finally abolish the Atlantic slave trade.'

Up to three million Africans had been transported in British ships since 1650, and at the end of the 18th century Britain was dominating the trade, with an average of more than 150 slave ships leaving Liverpool, Bristol, and London each year.

The slave-based economy of the British West Indies was flourishing, and its share of the world coffee and sugar production was sustaining Britain as she turned her face toward war.

While the 1807 act made trading in slaves illegal, there had been little consideration about how best to enforce the legislation. A quarter of all Africans who were enslaved in the period 1500-1870 were transported across the Atlantic after 1807. The Atlantic slave trade was not extinguished in a few years, as many had hoped.

The Foreign Office had to persuade other nations to enter into treaties prohibiting the slave trade and empower British naval officers to arrest the slavers. As defects in the treaties became plain, yet more diplomatic manoeuvring was needed.

Ultimately, it took nearly 60 years of untiring diplomacy and naval patrolling to finally abolish the Atlantic slave trade.

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Published: 2007-02-05