History essay

• Historians believe that Granville Sharp was an important abolitionist.Granville Sharp was a lawyer who was horrified by slavery and brought up cases against slavery in court which helped abolition.He tried to get the owners of the Zong ship charged with murder.The Zong ship was a slave ship that hundreds of enslaved people got killed on.This was important because even though Granville Sharp lost the case,it raised awareness of how slavery was bad and helped abolition.
• In June 1772,Sharp had taken part in a case to free an enslaved man called James Somerset,who had been recaptured after escaping his master,Charles Steuart,in Britain.Sharp saw the case as a chance to promote arguments against slavery.Jerry Teale states “Sharp won the case and scored an important legal victory when the Lord Chief Justice,William Mansfield,ruled that slaves could not be taken out of Britain against their will”.This tells us that Granville Sharp’s work helped the abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade a lot.
• However,Granville Sharp was not the most important factor to why the Atlantic Slave Trade was abolished because not all of his bills ended up being passed in court.Overall,it could be argued that Granville Sharp was the most important abolitionist because he managed to make it illegal for enslaved people to be taken out of Britain against their own will,and he managed to raise a lot of awareness towards abolition in court 
• Overall there were many reasons why slavery was abolished.The factor of least importance was Granville Sharp because although he tried to make slavery illegal he didn’t actually succeed.Oladah Equiano was an important abolitionist because he wrote about his experiences,but slavery wasn’t abolished until after he died.However,the most important abolitionist was William Wilberforce because he was a talented speechwriter who made speeches in parliament against the Atlantic Slave Trade for 18 years,and he presented the bill that abolished the Atlantic Slave Trade.
• Historians believe that Oladah Equiano was an important abolitionist.Oladah Equiano “Was captured in his Igbo village at age 11 and sold into slavery,and taken to the West Indies”.He ended up buying his way out of slavery,and taught himself how to read.He wrote an autobiography about his experiences of being an enslaved person,which was a hugely influential first hand account of what the Atlantic Slave Trade was like.
• Thousands of people read the autobiography,which meant that a lot of awareness towards abolition was raised,and it showed the public that Africans were intelligent and on the same level as British people.Oladah Equinano was part of a group called the Sons of Africa,which was a group of African abolitionists that met in London to talk and write about their experiences.This meant that he was able to raise awareness about abolition with other people with a similar experience to him.
• Oladah Equiano also gave lectures that showed how the Atlantic Slave Trade wasn’t morally right,which was important as it spread the abolitionist message.However,even though Equiano’s work helped raise awareness of abolition,slavery didn’t get abolished until after he died.Overall,it could be argued that Oladah Equiano was the most important abolitionist because tens of thousands of people read his book,which would have made them realise that slavery was a moral issue
• Historians believe that William Wilberforce was an important abolitionist.William Wilberforce was a member of Parliament who was elected in 1780 when he was at the age of 21.Soon after he was told about the Atlantic Slave Trade in 1783 he became very religious,which made him stop gambling and going to clubs and made him become interested in social reform.
• William Wilberforce was a talented speech writer and made many speeches against the Atlantic Slave Trade,because in 1787 he met another abolitionist called Thomas Clarkson who collected evidence about slavery which he gave to Wilberforce to use in his speeches.This was important as it made more people in parliament be against the Atlantic Slave Trade
• Wilberforce presented a bill for the abolition of slavery every year between 1789 and 1806,and he used his friendship with the prime minister and the monarchy to win support for abolition.This was important as it led to slavery being abolished.Overall,William Wilberforce’s work was important because he passed the bill that ended the Atlantic slave Trade.