Why was Great Britain's Slave Trade Act of 1807 ineffective at fully abolishing slavery in the British Empire?

Answer 1

The act made slave TRADING - transporting slaves - ILLEGAL throughout the British Empire (but not the OWNING of slaves).

Therefore the act WAS effective. However just as criminals break laws now, there were some British citizens prepared to break the law and sometimes captains at risk of being caught by the Royal Navy would throw slaves into the sea to reduce their fines.

To address this, in 1827, Britain defined participation in the slave trade as piracy and punishable by death. It also used its influence to end the practice of slave trading in other countries, especially those of Africa (which were the source of the slaves).

Thus after the 1807 Act, slaves could still be held, though not sold, within the British Empire and the abolitionist movement in Britain continued to campaign against slavery.

This resulted in the Slavery Abolition Act received Royal Assent on 28 August 1833, paving the way for the abolition of slavery (owning slaves) within the British Empire and its colonies and on 1 August 1834 all slaves in the British Empire were emancipated. This was the first time in recorded history that a society had made the owning of a slave illegal. It seems obvious to us now but the change was immense, people had been enslaving each other as far back as we can look.

Following this the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society campaigned to outlaw slavery in other countries and pressured the British government to do more to enforce the suppression of the slave trade, by declaring slave traders to be pirates. This started the world's oldest international human rights organisation.

Answer 2

The act banned the transport of slaves from Africa, but it allowed British subjects who already owned slaves to keep them.

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