1. Granville Sharp: 1735-1813 Son of an archdeacon and grandson of the Archbishop of York. Chooses to serve as linen draper’s assistant; 1758 joins civil service. 1765: meets Jonathan Strong badly beaten by David Lisle. 1768: Courts rule in favor of Strong. Argues cases of Thomas Lewis and James Somerset:“As soon as any slave sets foot upon English territory, he becomes free.” Radical opinions on farm wages; supports American war of independence.

2. Thomas Clarkson: 1760-1846 1785: Wins an essay competition at Cambridge: "Is it right to make men slaves against their wills?“ Clarkson contacted Granville Sharp, who had already started a campaign to end the slave-trade. In 1787 Clarkson and Sharp formed the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Of the twelve members on the committee, nine were Quakers. Influential figures such as John Wesley and Josiah Wedgwood gave their support to the campaign. William Wilberforce, the MP for Hull, acts as spokesman in the House of Commons.

4. Slavery Facts: 1445-1870: 40-50 millions Africans were enslaved out which only 15 million made it alive. (Walter Rodney). Africans were enslaved at the rate of 5000 a year. 1783-1793: more than 300,000 slaves sold in British colonies at a value of 15million pounds. Profits exceeded 100% of traders’ investment.

5. Slavery and Abolition 1441: First capture of Africans by Portuguese seamen. 1492: First Africans arrive in the New World with Columbus. 1526: First Africans arrive in North America. 1646-1660: Beginning of sugar exports from Barbados, St Kitts, & Jamaica. 1663: Company of Royal Adventurers; The Guinea (a gold coin) worth 21 shillings is struck.

6. Slavery and Abolition 1672: Royal African Company. Pre-Assiento: More than 500 slavers sent out from Bristol, Liverpool &London. 1713: Assiento: contract to supply slaves to Spanish colonies. 1791-1806: British own 50% share in slave trade. 1791: The Great Slave Rebellion of San Domingo (Haiti). 1794: French Convention abolishes slavery on French colonies.

7. Slavery and Abolition 1807: Britain abolishes the slave trade. 1833: Parliament passes the Emancipation Bill. Slavery abolished in British colonies. 800,000 slaves liberated. Slave owners are compensated to the cost of 20million pounds. 1865: United States abolishes slavery.

8. Abolition 1772: Judge Lord Mansfield rules that there is no legal basis for slavery in Britain. 1774: John Wesley Thoughts Upon Slavery. 1778: William Pitt introduces a bill to regulate slavery. 1781: Capt. Collingwood case (133 Africans thrown overboard for insurance money). 1782: Letters of Late Ignatius Sancho, an African. 1783: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.

9. Abolition 1786: Thomas Clarkson’s An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species. 1788-1792: Price of Sugar rises steeply. Period of mass agitation against the slave trade led by Clarkson, William Wilberforce and William Pitt. 1791:William Wilberforce's bill for Abolition is defeated 163 to 88. 1792: Coleridge writes his Greek Sapphic Ode "Ode on the Slave Trade," during his first year at Cambridge. 1792: Edmund Burke, Sketch of a Negro Code (proposes a plan for orderly abolition and emancipation). 1807: Abolition of Slave trade.

10. Abolition 1823: Clarkson and Wilberforce found The Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions and its influential Monthly Reporter. Parliament debates emancipation. Slave uprising in Demerara polarizes the factions. 1825: Women join the abolition movement in large numbers with increasing influence and visibility: three women's antislavery societies were formed at Birmingham, Sheffield, and Calne; by 1830, there were 40 more. 1831: Mary Prince, The History of Mary Prince, a West- Indian Slave 1834: Emancipation takes effect.