The Story of Slavery

A visual history of slavery, the slave trade and its abolition.

Europeans transported Africans to the Caribbean and the American colonies. On arrival, the Africans were sold as slaves to plantation owners. They became the property of their new owners.

The enslaved Africans worked on the plantations producing cash crops such as sugar, coffee, cotton and chocolate, which were sold to European merchants. The Africans had no human rights. They suffered from overwork, cruel punishments and violence.

Slave uprisings in the Caribbean were common. Radicals in Britain campaigned hard to change public opinion so that people rejected slavery and the goods produced by slavery.

In 1807 Parliament abolished the Slave Trade in the British Empire. In 1833 the Slavery Abolition Act officially banned the owning of slaves. Slave owners were compensated when all the slaves in the empire were freed in 1834. However, the enslaved workers had to continue working for their former owners until 1838.

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