The Slavery Abolition Act, 1833

In 1833 the British Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act, ending slavery in most of the British Empire from 1 August 1834. Pressure came from the Baptist War in Jamaica, renewed mass petitioning, and an 1832 reform of Parliament that weakened the planters' allies. The act was a compromise: formerly enslaved people over six had to serve as 'apprentices', working unpaid for their former owners for several more years; after protests, apprenticeship ended early on 1 August 1838.

Slaveholders received £20 million in compensation, about 40 percent of the government's annual spending, while the enslaved received nothing. Some territories, such as those ruled by the East India Company, were excluded. Historians debate whether compensation was a necessary price for peaceful abolition or an injustice that rewarded slaveholders. The act freed roughly 800,000 people and inspired abolitionists elsewhere, especially in the United States.