"The work of the white, middle-class campaigners was the main reason the slave trade was abolished." Do you agree? Explain your opinion in detail. .
The Slave Trade refers to the trading pattern in which people (mostly Europeans) forcibly removed black people from the West coast of Africa; they paid for these people with weapons and materials. They were then brought to Jamaica to be sold to plantation owners and individual households. The last part of the journey was to bring the raw materials that the slaves produced to sell in England for profit. .
In 1807, the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed; however it did not outlaw slavery completely - it only ensured that Britain did not partake in the slave trade. This meant that no slaves were emancipated and countries such a France, Portugal and Spain still traded slaves. Nevertheless, a number of social groups: white middle-class campaigners, emancipated slaves and the white working-class, continued to fight for the abolition of slavery to eventually get the Slavery Abolition Act passed in 1834 which stopped all slavery. In this essay I will examine whether the work of the white, middle-class campaigners really was the main reason the slave trade was abolished or if other members of the social spectrum were equally or more responsible.
The Abolitionists were a group of people who thought slavery was wrong and wanted to end it. The most well known group of people to fight slavery were the White middle-class campaigners, Granville Sharp was a lawyer who fought for slaves' right to freedom. One day he saw an injured black man outside his house in the streets, he was in agony. His head was swollen, he was nearly blind and he could hardly walk. He eventually found out that the man's name was Jonathan Strong and he was a runaway slave who had been severely beaten by his master. Granville paid for his medical treatment and found him a job as a messenger boy.
