Abolition of slavery in the British Empire 1833
Also called: Slavery Abolition Act 1833 · Topic: The Making of a Global World · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 was a British law. It ended slavery in most British colonies from 1834. Slave owners were paid compensation (money for their loss), but the freed slaves were not. At first, former slaves had to keep working for their old masters as "apprentices", and this system ended in 1838. Plantations then ran short of workers. This led planters to bring in indentured labour, meaning workers bound by contract, from India.
Example
After slavery ended, Indian indentured labourers were sent to sugar plantations in Mauritius from the 1830s. Later they went to Trinidad, Guyana, Surinam and Fiji. Their system was so harsh that it has been called a "new system of slavery", and it was abolished in 1921.
Don't confuse with
- Abolition of the slave trade (1807): this earlier British law banned the buying and selling of slaves. People who were already enslaved stayed slaves until the 1833 Act.