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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 429: SLAVE-TRADE ABOLITION BILL.
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

SLAVE-TRADE ABOLITION BILL.

On the 18th of April, the evidence on the slave-trade being closed, Mr. Wilberforce moved “for a bill to prevent the further importation of African negroes into the British colonies.” He introduced this motion with a copious and convincing display of arguments in its favour, grounded on the principles of justice, humanity, and Christianity, but though it was supported by Pitt and Fox, self-interest prevailed: the motion was negatived by one hundred and sixty-three against eighty-eight. The advocates of humanity, however, completed at this time the establishment of the Sierra Leone Company, by which they proposed to introduce free labour and Christianity into Africa. A bill was brought in for this purpose by the excellent Henry Thornton, and it passed through both houses without opposition.