A Timeline of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its ...

1562 A Timeline of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its Abolition

1564-65 16th Century

1567 Sir John Hawkins, backed by Gonson and other London merchants, leaves Plymouth with
three ships, making him the first English slave trader. He takes 300 Africans and trades
1607 them with the Spanish and Portuguese for sugar, hides, spices and pearls
Backed by Queen Elizabeth I, Hawkins makes his second slavery voyage trading 500 Africans
1618 for precious metals, pearls and jewels
Hawkins makes his third and final slavery voyage, again with the Queen’s investment,
1619 involving six ships, including one captained by his cousin Sir Francis Drake. After trading 500
1623 Africans in the Caribbean, Hawkins sought refugee from storms in the Mexican port of San
1625 Juan de Ullua, where he is ambushed by the Spanish. Many of Hawkins’ crew is captured;
1626 some face the Inquisition, others forced into slavery and some taken back to Spain to be
1649 hung. Only three ships return to Plymouth, carrying seventy out of the original four
1655 hundred men
1655
1656 17th Century
1657 Colony of Virginia is founded and is the first permanent English settlement in North America;
soon becoming one of the main areas for the arrival of enslaved Africans
1660s King James I establishes The Company of Adventurers of London Trading into the ports of
1672 Africa, more commonly known as The Guinea Company; the first private company to colonise
Africa for profit
1675 Beginning of trade in enslaved Africans in Virginia to grow tobacco
1668 The first English settlement on St Kitts is established by Thomas Warner
1683 Barbados becomes an English Caribbean colony
1685-86 First ship of enslaved Africans arrive on St. Kitts
1690 Slave rebellion takes place in Barbados
1692 England takes control of Jamaica from Spain
1698 Escaped slaves in Jamaica create ‘Maroon’ settlements in the mountains
Slave rebellion in Guadeloupe led by Angolans
1699 Juan de Bolas, a Jamaican leader of escaped slaves ('Maroons') surrenders to the British but on
terms of pardon and freedom. Other Maroons continue to fight British rule
1702-13 Demand for African labour for the Barbados sugar plantations intensifies
The Royal African Company is re-formed after its collapse in 1667 to regulate the English
1727 slave trade. By the 1680s it is transporting approximately 5000 slaves per year
35 slaves are executed for plotting to rebel in Jamaica
‘Lobby's rebellion’ in Jamaica; 200 slaves escape to the mountains
Slave conspiracy in Jamaica uncovered
Slave rebellion in Jamaica suppressed
Major slave revolt in Jamaica
Slave conspiracy to slaughter whites discovered in Barbados
Royal African Company monopoly ends. The slave trade is officially opened to private traders
causing a dramatic increase in Africans being transported on English ships
80% of Caribbean inhabitants are enslaved Africans

18th Century
War of the Spanish Succession. In 1713 Britain gains all of St. Kitts, and the right (asiento) to
import enslaved people to Spanish America is granted to the South Sea Company
Quakers in Britain officially express their disapproval of the slave trade in their London
Yearly Meeting Book

1729 Slave rebellion in Cuba
1730 Britain becomes the largest slave trading country
1730-39 First Maroon War in Jamaica. British agree a treaty with the Maroon leader Cudjoe in 1739 giving
1735-36 the Maroons 1,500 acres of land in return for helping to capture other escaped slaves
1745 ‘Tackey’s rebellion’ in Antigua
1746 Olaudah Equiano (author of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or
1752 Gustavus Vassa, the African) is born
1756-63 Slave rebellion in Jamaica
1759 Slave rebellion in Martinique
1760 Seven Years War. Britain gains Dominica, Grenada, St Vincent and Tobago
1760 William Wilberforce, the abolitionist, is born in Hull
1765 Slave revolts in Jamaica last for several months, up to 400 rebels are executed
1770s Thomas Clarkson, the abolitionist, is born
1772 Granville Sharp begins legal challenges to the British slave trade with the case of Jonathan
1772 Strong
The abolitionist campaigner Granville Sharpe collects evidence showing that slavery is
1772-73 incompatible with English Law
John Woolman, an American Quaker and early anti-slavery campaigner comes to England to
1774 gather support from English Quakers
1775 The Somerset case in London. Chief Justice Lord Mansfield rules that enslaved people in
1775-83 England cannot be forced to return to the West Indies. This ruling does not entitle slaves
1778 in England their freedom
1781 John Stedman joins a military expedition to suppress a slave rebellion in Surinam, South
America and is appalled by the inhumanity shown to Africans. In 1796 he publishes ‘The
1783 Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam’, a full
1786 account of his experiences that becomes a classic of abolitionist literature
1787 John Wesley, an early leader of the Methodist movement, publishes anti-slavery tract
1788 Thoughts Upon Slavery
Royal Commission is set up to take evidence on the slave trade
1788 American War of Independence. France seizes Grenada, Tobago and St Kitts from Britain but
retains only Tobago after the Peace of Versailles
The Knight vs Wedderburn legal case in Edinburgh rules that enslavement is incompatible with
Scots law
The Zong case causes outrage and strengthens the abolition campaign: 470 Africans are forced
onto the slave ship Zong. The cramped conditions are so appalling that seven crew members and
sixty Africans died from sickness; the remaining 133 sick Africans are thrown overboard and left
to drown. The case is heard as an insurance dispute not a murder trial
London Yearly Meeting present to Parliament the first petition against the slave trade signed
by 273 Quakers
Thomas Clarkson’s 'An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species’ is published and
makes an immediate impact
The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade is founded
Due to the to growing concern about conditions in the 'Middle Passage' the Dolben Act limits the
number of enslaved people a ship is permitted to carry. Even with these restrictions, conditions
remain appalling
First public abolitionists meeting held in Plymouth Guildhall - Plymouth Committee of
Abolitionists leaflet is produced

1789 Olaudah Equiano’s ‘The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus
1790 Vassa, the African’ is published
1790 William Wilberforce presents the first abolition bill to the House of Commons, although it
1791-1804 does not pass
Thomas Clarkson pays another visit to Plymouth
1792 A slave rebellion in St Domingue in 1791 sparks off the Haitian Revolution, led by Toussaint
1793-1802 L’Ouverture with an army of ex-slaves. The revolution eventually leads to St Domingue becoming
1794 independent Haiti in 1804
1795-96 House of Commons votes in favour of the abolition of the slave trade but the bill is rejected
1795 by the House of Lords
1795 French Revolutionary War between Britain and France delays the abolition campaign
1796 France abolishes slavery and frees all enslaved people in her colonies. Legislation is passed by US
Congress to prevent US vessels being used in the slave trade
1802 Second Maroon War in Jamaica, ending in defeat for the Maroons
1803-15 Fédon’s Rebellion in Grenada causes enormous damage to plantations. Enslaved people seize control
1804 of large parts of the island before being defeated by British troops in 1796
1807 Rebellion in St Vincent results in expulsion of Black Caribs from the island in 1796
Napoleon seizes power in France and soon restores slavery in the French colonies
1808
19th Century
1810 First West India dock opens, initially dealing solely with the produce from the West Indies
1816 Napoleonic Wars between Britain and France. Vienna Settlement confirms British control of St.
1817 Lucia, Tobago and the Guiana colonies
1817 On January 1, St Domingue is declared the republic of Haiti, the first independent black state
1820 outside Africa
1823 The Transatlantic Slave Trade is abolished by the British Parliament. US also ban the slave
trade, to take effect the following year. Britain declares Sierra Leone (in West Africa) a
1823 crown colony
1831 The British West Africa Squadron is established at Sierra Leone to suppress any illegal
1831 slave trading by British citizens. Between 1810-65, nearly 150,000 people are freed by
1831 anti-slavery squadrons
Britain negotiates with Portugal for the abolition of the South Atlantic slave trade
‘Bussa’s rebellion’ in Barbados, inspired by the Haitian revolution, causes huge damage in the
harvest season before being brutally crushed
Spain signs a treaty with England agreeing to end the Spanish slave trade north of the equator
immediately, and south of the equator in 1820
Slave Registration Act forces all slave owners to provide a list of all the enslaved people they own
every two years
US law makes slave trading a crime equal to piracy, punishable by death
Slave rising in Demerara is brutally suppressed by British forces: 250 enslaved people die, and
Rev John Smith of the London Missionary Society is sentenced to death for his part, causing
outrage in Britain
Anti-Slavery Committee formed in London to campaign for total abolition of slavery
Major slave revolt called 'The Baptists’ War’ breaks out in Jamaica, led by Baptist preacher Sam
Sharpe, and is brutally suppressed
Nat Turner leads a slave rebellion in the Virginia, United States
The History of Mary Prince , the first narrative of a black woman, is published in London and
becomes an important part of the anti-slavery literature

1832 The Great Reform Act introduces new Members of Parliament from groups who are more likely to
1833 oppose slavery
Abolition of Slavery Act 1833 – Britain abolishes slavery and provides for the emancipation
1833 of enslaved people in the British West Indies, to take effect in August 1834. The Act
1833 declares that the former enslaved people must serve a period of 6 years apprenticeship
1838 before receiving full emancipation. Originally this period was set at six years, but it was
1839 later reduced to four. The Act declares that plantation and slave owners
Uprising on St. Kitts in opposition to the new apprenticeship system
1840 William Wilberforce dies on 29 July, three days after the bill to emancipate enslaved people is
passed
1865 The apprentice system is abolished following peaceful protests in Trinidad, so guaranteeing
1865 the complete emancipation of all former slaves in the colonies
A group of 49 enslaved Africans on board the slave ship Amistad revolt off the coast of Cuba.
1886 The ship lands at New London, USA, where the Africans are taken into custody. American
1888 abolitionists take up their cause and in March 1841 the Supreme Court upholds their freedom
The Royal Academy in London exhibits J.W.M. Turner’s controversial painting 'The Slave Ship’
(also called 'Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying – Typhoon coming on’). The same
exhibition also includes Auguste Biard’s painting 'Scene on the Coast of Africa'
The Thirteenth Amendment marks the abolition of slavery in the USA following the American Civil
War
The biggest and most famous revolt by black Jamaicans. 17 Europeans are killed and 32 injured
after a riot in Morant Bay which sees the crowd attack the police station and the local militia.
Over a few days a number of plantations are also attacked. The authorities react violently and
declare martial law. The ringleaders are executed and around 400 blacks are killed
Abolition of slavery in Cuba
Abolition of slavery in Brazil