TODAY IN HISTORY

|The Abolition Of Slavery Act|

Slaves on a West Indian plantation being freed following passage of the Slavery Abolition Act (1833).

On this day in 1834, the Abolition of Slavery Act, which scaled the reading of the British Parliament in 1833, came into force, thus setting free over eight hundred thousand slaves in several British colonies around the world.

Although the Abolition of Slavery Act was a huge victory for Africans and the abolitionists, it only really freed slaves below the age of six. Slaves over the said age were designated as “apprentices," with their servitude being abolished completely on 1st August 1838 and 1st August 1840.

Note: The Abolition of Slavery Act is not to be confused with The Slave Trade Act of 1807. Although the Slave Trade Act prohibited slave trade in the British Empire, it did not abolish the practice of slavery.