Origins of the abolitionist movement and its support

• Abolish means to put an end to something officially.
• The Abolitionist movement refers to those people trying to end the slave trade through political and other means.
• In Britain, the origins of the movement began with the It began in the last quarter of the 18th century.
• In the Somersett Case of 1772, a fugitive enslaved person was freed when the court ruled that slavery did not exist under English common law.
• This case is regarded by historians as the start of the British movement to abolish slavery.
• In 1787, the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed in London and William Wilberforce led the cause of abolition through a parliamentary campaign.
• In 1783, an anti-slavery movement began among the British public to end slavery throughout the British Empire.
• English and American Quakers (Christian religious groups) also began to question the morality of slavery in the latter part of the 18th century.
• The Zong was an overloaded slave ship which crossed the Atlantic in 1781 carrying 442 enslaved people.
• For some reason, the ship sailed off course and it was clear that the ship would be late reaching Jamaica.
• Drinking water was in short supply and sickness had spread among those enslaved and the crew.
• Approximately 132 African captives were thrown overboard and drowned because if they had died on board, the crew could not claim insurance money on the lost cargo.
• The crew was tried in court in 1783, but the case was heard as an insurance dispute rather than a murder trial.
• The case of the Zong came to symbolise the horrors of the Middle Passage as it was heavily publicised in the newspapers and strengthened the abolition campaign.