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The British government allocated two million pounds as compensation to owners affected by the abolition of slavery, but no compensation was allocated to those who had been sold as slaves (photo: getty images). |
188 years ago today, when the British Parliament announced the abolition of slavery in British territories, there was a wave of joy among the millions of people who had been bought and sold as slaves in different parts of the world.
On August 1, 1834, the British Parliament declared the official abolition of slavery in the British colonies, after which slavery was abolished in the British territories in Canada, including the West Indies, South Africa.
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the British Parliament made the decision on August 28, 1833, about a year after a royal decree.
With this declaration, about 800,000 slaves got their freedom, but it was maintained in different forms in some areas.
For example, this British law was applicable only in the territories that came directly under the jurisdiction of the British Empire.
Since the subcontinent was under the control of the East India Company instead of the Crown at that time, this law could not be applied here.
Ten years after the British Parliament passed the Abolition of Slavery Act, the Indian Slavery Act of 1943 was passed, which prohibited the East India Company from keeping and selling slaves.
According to the book 'Mahatma Gandhi and the New Millennium' by author M. Maharajan, the law relaxed the slavery regulations and gave certain rights to the existing slaves.
But after the introduction of the Indian Penal Code in 1861, keeping slaves in British India was made a crime under the Indian Penal Code.
This decision was made at a time when no other empire in the world had made such a decision in this regard, as if Great Britain was the first empire to decide to abolish slavery.
The decision was based on a number of economic reasons, the main reason being the increasingly competitive trend in the Brazilian and Cuban markets.
Merchants were demanding free trade in the British colonies and wanted an end to British dominance of trade in these areas.
A growing trend of rebellion among African slaves was also a reason, while there were some legal complications in North American territories.
The Campaign to Abolish Slavery in Britain
Abolitionists in Great Britain had been campaigning since the 1770s, but previous efforts in this regard had not proved fruitful.
The British government allocated two million pounds as compensation to owners affected by the abolition of slavery, but no compensation was allocated to those who had been sold as slaves.
Two million pounds which is now more than 16 billion pounds
Kenan Malik, a researcher and journalist writing on this topic in the British newspaper The Guardian, writes that in 1833, the British government allocated two million pounds for the abolition of slavery, which was 40 percent of its national budget at that time.
This amount is more than 16 billion pounds according to the current currency of the pound.
At that time, this money was given to the 46,000 owners who lost their 'property' after the end of slavery.
According to the British Library archives, the slave trade in the 18th century AD and then the anti-slavery campaign also played an important role in this regard.
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| The slave trade in Great Britain was abolished in 1807, but slaves sold in the British Empire had to wait until 1834 for slavery to be abolished (photo: getty images). |
The British Empire began the slave trade in 1663 after being sanctioned by royal decree, after which millions of people from the British colonies in Africa were transported to North America and sold, forcing them to work in an environment They went where they did not even have basic rights.
According to the Royal Museum Greenwich, between 1662 and 1807, more than 3.415 million Africans were bought as slaves by the British Empire, of which more than 2.9 million were sold in the American territories.
According to museum records, between 1699 and 1807, British ships embarked on 10,103 expeditions aimed at enslaving the inhabitants of the colonial territories.
Of these, 3351 expeditions were dispatched from London. The slave trade in Great Britain was abolished in 1807, but slaves sold in the British Empire had to wait until 1834 for slavery to be abolished.
After which the British Raj had to turn to 'contractual employment' to run the empire.
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