Lesson video

Hello, everyone my name is Mr. Madeley and welcome to lesson three or four in the enquiry: How successful were efforts to abolish the slave trade in the 19th century? Today's lesson title is the 1807 and 1833 Act.

For today's lesson you're going to need a pen or pencil, some paper and a nice quiet room to do your working.

If you need to find that room or any of the equipment pause the video now.

Excellent, let's crack on with the lesson.

I hope you've got the title down, but if you haven't just pause the video and make sure that you do.

Brill, let's get on with the lesson.

So, we're going to start with an overview on the abolition movement.

So, we're going to do a recap, then we're going to look at the two individual Acts that's helped end the British involvement in the slave trade and in enslaving people.

So, let's start with the multiple-choice.

Which Island did Britain fail to capture from formerly enslaved people? If you need to pause the video, but I know, you know the answer so five, four three, two, one.

And the answer is Saint Domingue, well done.

Next one, what happened in 1806 which limited Britain's involvement in the slave trade.

Oh, which one was it? Oh, Oh, five, four, three, two, one.

Well done, it was the banning of the trade in enslaved people with foreign countries in the Americas.

So, it was the 1806 Abolition of Foreign the Slave Trade Act.

Last one, which of the following was not a method used by anti-slavery societies to gain support for the abolition of the slave trade.

So, which of these did they not do? Five, four, three, two, one.

Well done, they didn't chain themselves to railings outside parliament, but they did all the rest, well done.

So, all of this is important because all these things helped lead to the individual acts that we're going to look at in today's lesson.

So, the 1807 Act.

The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act.

What it did is it stopped British merchants.

So, remember merchants are businessmen people that buy and sell from taking part in the slave trades.

So, you've got a source to the right, this was made to commemorate the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act.

What I'd like to do is just pause the video in a moment to look at the picture and think, how was the act scene in Britain? How is this portrayed? How's it shown? So, when you look at the picture, what can you see in this, and what is it telling us about how this act was seen in Britain? So, pause the video now.

Well done, really good thoughts so far.

But here's a little bit of help.

So, we have a lady she's a lady called Liberty or freedom, and she's holding a flag that saying, "Slave Trade Abolished." You have a statue of the Prime Minister, William Grenville and he was responsible for the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act getting through parliament.

You also have in the middle of the picture, the lion on the floor, which represents England or Britain.

And you've got Britannia stood there with the flag above her.

On or beneath Britannia's feet are the chains manacles that were used to enslave people.

But you also have other things, so, you've got a slave ship with a broken mast that escort the act that abolishes the trade because the ship can't sail without a mast because it uses the winds.

So, the trade has been broken the mastership cannot sail.

You also have, if you look above an image of light, a pairing and shining on the Abolition of Slave Trade Act on Britannia for doing this and on William Grenville.

So, what is this saying about how this act is seen in Britain using this information? So, have a go using these sentence starters and think about what we've just looked at if you need to rewind the video to give you a bit more help and pause it as you go through it.

I'd like to pause the video very shortly and have a go at answering this question.

So, pause the video now.

Oh, well done that must've been really quite challenging.

It's quite difficult source to use, but I know you've done really well.

This is what I have put now, do not worry if you haven't got the same as me, because you can always alter your answer if you wish to stop and pause the video later on, or as long as you've got the most important points I know you will have done well.

So, this is what I put.

The Abolition of slave trade was seen as deliverance by God.

So, I'm linking it back to the religious statements and the religious beliefs that was going on in Britain at the time.

This can be shown in the picture, but the rays of light from heaven shining on Britannia.

So, the image of the ray of light from heaven shining on Britannia, Britannia you represents Britain.

This shows the abolition of slave trade was the correct moral thing to do.

So, I'm using a word, a key word from the last lesson moral.

You could have said other things you could have mentioned about the slave trade and slave trade ship being in the darkness, and that this act is bringing in Britain into the light, leaving the darkness of the horror of the slave trade behind.

So, I'm sure you've done a really, really good answer for that.

But, when we look at the abolition slave trade was it really the end of slavery? And, I'm using this image because we used it in lesson one.

This was the destruction of the Roehampton Estate during the Baptist War.

Well, the Baptist War was in 1831.

So, how can the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act that's 24 years before the Baptist War.

And the Baptist war was enslaved people in Jamaica, rising up to try and gain their freedom.

So, obviously the Abolition of Slave Trade Act can't have actually abolished slavery.

What it did do is it stopped the practise of enslaving people in West Africa and transporting them to the Caribbean and to America.

So, it stopped the British trades in enslaved people.

If you were a plantation owner, you still could keep the enslaved people working on your plantations and they remained enslaved.

But what you couldn't do is you couldn't then decide to buy more enslaved people into your plantation, or you couldn't then sell them because the Abolition Slave Trade Act stopped you from doing that.

So, by no means did the 1807 Abolition Slave Trade Act actually stop enslavement or the enslavement of people in the Caribbean or in British colonies.

But the act needed to be enforced.

And so, what you see is after the 1807 Act, Britain starts to take it a little bit more seriously, and its attempts to try and crack down on the enslavement of people from West Africa.

And Britain at this time incredibly fortunate in the fact that it has the world's most powerful navy.

And it's the navy that they then use used to try and stop the continuing of the slight or the British involvement in the slave trade.

So, the Royal Navy in the Caribbean and off the coast of America, the Royal Navy sends a new squadron, a new fleet of ships to the coast of West Africa and they're based in Sierra Leone.

And that purpose is to hunt down and find, and search any merchant ship that they think might be carrying or holding or be involved in the slave trade.

So, you've got a source here from 1854 of a British warship, HMS Brisk, actually fighting and capturing The Emanuela which was a slaving ship, a slave owner ship.

And this was not a quick process.

The coast of West Africa was huge.

The Royal Navy was needed to fight wars against the French and the Americans at the time.

So, originally the 1807 Act probably didn't achieve much within the first few years.

Only after about 1815, once the threat from the French had reduced, could you actually see the Royal Navy devote tension to trying to crack down and end the slave trades.

The only unfortunate thing is, is it took the agreement of the other countries involved in or still transporting slaves.

So, great to let them onto their ships.

And there was ways around it.

So, cheeky and snaky little think, and warships sometimes did this.

If you thought that you were going to be searched, what you could do is you could fly another country's flag on your ship.

And that meant that you could almost escape without being searched.

And then as soon as the warship had disappeared, you could then put your original flag back up and sailors it did that.

So, there was many, many ways on which you could escape being searched.

So, enforcing the 1807 Abolition the Slave Trade Act was incredibly tough, but there were steps being put in place to try to actually reduce it and enforce it.

So, it takes us to the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act.

Now, I've given you here a source and it's a image of a blue plaque.

And I believe plaques are given to places where really, really famous and important people have lived.

But what we have to remember is William Wilberforce and The Clapham Sect worshipped in the place this church that campaign resorts in the abolition of slavery in the British dominions or colonies in 1833.

What you have to remember, is that actually it wasn't just William Wilberforce and The Clapham Sect that caused the abolition of slavery in 1833 they were other reasons behind it? So, for example, The Baptist War and the effects of that are not mentioned on that blue plaque.

The role of the Royal Navy is not mentioned on that blue plaque, the decline in the prosperity and the amount of profits we made from using enslaved labour is not on there.

So, William Wilberforce was one way in which slavery was eventually abolished within British territories.

He was very, very significant.

He led the campaign in parliament.

He was the one who persuaded parliament to pass the Act, but that was tremendous amount of work done by other people to gain enough evidence, to allow him to achieve what he's given credit for achieving.

But we have to bear in mind that actually William Wilberforce was only one tiny brick and a very big bridge to getting this 1833 Slavery Abolition Act passed.

So, what did it do? Well, the simple way is it abolished and ended slavery and using enslaved labour throughout the British Empire.

Now, you might be thinking as you're listening to this, the brilliant slavery's abolished all of these enslaved people are going to be free fantastic, it's been done yes.

Well, no, because what we have to remember is the reason slavery was used and the enslavement of people progressed as it did was because people could make money out of it, and parliament and the House of Lords and a lot of influential people in Britain were all links or had links to a certain degree with enslaved labour.

Now, they were not just going to abolish a means of income to themselves.

So, this act in 1833 abolished slavery said that you can't use enslaved labour anymore they have to be set free.

However, what you will do is you can, if you were a plantation owner, you are able to tell your formerly enslaved people that they are now free, but, they all know your apprentices.

Now, what that means is the actually then not free.

They're not enslaved anymore, but they're not free either because as an apprentice, they still have to work on the plantation that the British person owns, they are going to be working in the same conditions.

The only differences is they will be given a very, very small and tiny wage, but they are tide and they're fixed and they have to stay on that plantation.

So actually, has it changed anything for the enslaved people on the plantations? And the answer is no.

The benefit of the Abolition of the Slavery act as a slave abolition act was mainly, it can be argued for the white plantation owners because they demand and said, well, we're losing our workforce.

You know that you've got compensate, you're forcing me to give something up.

So, parliament agreed to pay compensation for the plantation owners, for the enslaved people that they now had to set free and refer to them as apprentices.

And this compensation totaled millions of pounds.

So, the 1833 Act did in theory abolish slavery.

However, in practise, it's still continued for a number of years.

It didn't try to make an equal society.

And so, what we have is slavery in theory, has been abolished.

But if you think back to our criteria, how successful efforts to abolish slavery in the 19th century, you may be starting to gain some ideas about was it successful or was it not.

So, the glossary Napoleonic War, it's a war between Britain and her allies against France.

The Napoleonic War ended in 1815.

No, on the reading the worksheets, you can have the war of 1812 that's a war between Britain and America from 1812 to 14.

Merchantmen again, people who buy and sell goods.

Treaty is an agreement signed between countries.

Baptist War, an uprising of enslaved people in Jamaica.

Apprentice, someone who is paid a lower wage whilst they learned to do a certain skill, job.

And compensation money given to someone who has been forced to lose something.

Okay, the comprehension questions.

What did the 1807 Abolition of the Slave Trade Act change? Why did the 807 act failed and the slave trade? How did Britain try to stop the enslavement of West African people after 1807? Explain why the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act was passed.

What did the 1833 slavery Abolition Act change? And then we'll plan this, but by all means, have a go at it at first.

What was the main reason for the abolition of the slave trade? So, pause the video, read the worksheet and answer the comprehension questions.

Well done, you've worked really hard on those questions really, really pleased.

Remember full sentences using keywords and the question was what we were aiming for.

And you do not necessarily have to have written down exactly what I have done, but I know you would have got the core correct details down.

So, question one, what did the 1807 Abolition of the Slave Trade Act change? Well, it stopped Britain from trading enslaved people is an acceptable answer is a full sentence.

We've got the answer we're going to add a bit of detail.

The 1807 Abolition of Slave Trade Act.

So, keywords in the question.

Stop British merchantmen, key word, important words from trading and enslaved people within the British Empire.

This, coupled with the 1896 Foreign Slave Trade Abolition Act, ended British involvement in the transport of enslaved people.

So, you've got the two-act working together to ensure that all British merchantmen cannot trade in enslaved people anymore.

Why did the 1807 act failed to end the slave trade? Well, acceptable answer is it only affected the British.

The 1807 act is a good one banned British involvement in the transportation of enslaved people.

This meant that British merchants could no longer enslaved people in West Africa and transport them to the Americas or transports enslaved people around the British owned colonies in the Americas.

It did not stop the use of enslaved people in British colonies.

You could've also and said the French, Spanish, Americans, Brazilians Portuguese, Dutch all continued using enslaved labour and all continued the trade of slaves, the slave trade and transporting them around the Americas and the Caribbean.

That also would have been a very good answer.

How did Britain try to stop the enslavement of West African people after 1807? So, the Royal Navy sent to West African coast would be an acceptable answer.

A good answer: Britain sent warships to the West coast of Africa.

They were called the West African Squadron.

Initially they only had a few ships due to Britain's war with France and America.

However, the West African Squadron's role was to find potential slave ships and returning slave people back to the African shore.

So, I've got the data, given the reason why may not have actually been that successful initially.

Explain why the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act was passed.

So, you could just say petition and public talks.

Good answer would, we're going to use a lot more detail.

The 1833 Slavery Abolition Act was created for many reasons, such as the effect of slave resistance and the demands of a change in Britain.

The Baptist War in Jamaica some using a specific example of slave resistance shocked the British people, and it showed that risings enslaved people were becoming more dangerous unless slavery was fully abolished.

Also, due to the Great Reform Act, those who supported the continuing of the slave trade lost their influence and power.

Coupled some building all of this evidence in coupled with increasing support from the ordinary people, primarily due to the anti-slavery societies, things had to change.

So, I've given three or four really good reasons why the slavery abolition act was passed with that answer.

What did the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act change? Well, the acceptable answer for something along the lines of ended slave in British Empire.

A good answer would look like this, or may look like this: The 1833 Slavery Abolition Act ended the practise of slavery throughout the British Empire.

This meant that all enslaved people were, in theory, so not actually, in theory to be released from enslavement.

However, the enslaved people were made apprentices for six years on their former owners plantations.

The former owners of enslaved people were compensated.

So, you stress that idea of yes, the practise of slavery was abolished, but the enslavement was replaced with apprenticeships, which were basically the same thing.

And what happened is that the former owners were paid money for turning around and turning their enslaved people to former enslaved people who are now apprentices.

So, effectively changing name.

Now the extension question, what was the main reason for abolition slave trade? Now, I'm hoping that you've done the previous two lessons.

And last lesson, we looked at the main reason why people supported the abolition of slave trade.

Now for this answer, or I'd really like you to do.

And if you didn't please do the second lesson.

I'd like you to take what we did from the second letter, and think what we now added in this lesson.

So, what is the main reason for the abolition slave trade? To theory we could've just left it in 1807 with the abolition of the slave trade, but that wouldn't have abolished slavery, and lesson two really focused on efforts that led up to the 1807 act.

So, what made the need from 1807 to 1833 for the full abolition of slavery? So, all that, any other differences between 1807 and 1833 from this lesson that we can pick out to add to what we did last lesson.

So, you have the writing frame, you have the key words.

If you want to please pause the video in a moment and have a think about what extra things you can add to your work from lesson two, so pause the video now.

Well done, I know you've got some really good ideas, but to help you along here's a frame.

We have slave resistance about the Baptist War, Parliaments, 1806 Foreign Slave Trade Abolition Act, the anti-slavery societies petitions, the religious justification, and then you've got money.

So, some of these are no different.

You've got parliament at it now.

So, what I'd like to do is to pause the video in a moment and then write down and use your notes from last lesson to build up why each of these and you can add another category or two if you want to.

to why there was the abolition slave trade.

So, pause the video now.

Well done, I know you've worked really hard doing that.

If you want to, you can copy down what I have got on the next slide, but I know you've got virtually all of it.

Anyway, you probably got more than me cause you've done more categories.

So, I'm really, really proud of you.

So, slave resistance.

We've got the Baptist War.

So, the Baptist War hadn't happened before 1887.

It was in 1831 and it was directly useful in helping to push through the abolition of slave trade or the slavery Abolition Act.

You have what we looked at last lesson, the Saint Domingue revolts with parliaments, which is parliament who actually passes through the law, but the act that bands slavery, you've got the 1807 Foreign Slave Trade, you've got the 1807 Abolition of the Slave Trade, and you've got the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act.

You've got the same thing from the slavery societies and for the religion, but I've included that actually for the religion, there was a strong influence on the anti-slavery societies.

And it was their religious justification, their religious morals that gave them the strength to really form the societies and push for this abolition.

You could have included by missionaries as well.

And you've got the money, now you've got the Royal Navy.

So, the Royal Navy, if you were an investor in the enslaving people, you could lose your investment if the Royal Navy captured your ship.

So, would you risk losing your money in a trade that could be abolished? So, there's no increased risk.

So, you've got all of that and then end of the day, the abolition slave trade white plantation got compensated.

So, would they cut their losses and take the compensation that was offered to them? No, I want to stress again.

There is no right or wrong answer to this question.

It's entirely up to you.

So, here's the writing frame.

You don't need to use it if you don't wish to, but if you wish to use a writing frame, use the key words for your paragraphs.

An amazingly brilliant answer would look at three or four of these.

You would say the main reason, the next most important reason, and then the least important reason for the abolition slave trade was.

And then you could have an instructional or conclusion.

So, you've turned it into a proper essay, but please remember, you've need to use the information we used last lesson and created then as well as this lesson to help you create a really outstanding piece of work.

So, pause the video now.

Fantastic, well done you worked really, really hard on that.

I'm really, really impressed and proud of you.

If you wish to share your work with OAK then please get your parent care or guardian to do so, on any of the usual social media systems. And please remember you do have one final thing left to do, which is the exit quiz.

And I very much look forward to seeing you for the final lesson on our topic, on our inquiry, where we bring everything together to answer the inquiry question.