Slave Trade Act 1824
The Slave Trade Act 1824, also known as the Slave Piracy Act, is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that amended and consolidated the laws relating to the abolition of the slave trade.
Background
In May 1772, Lord Mansfield's judgment in the Somerset case emancipated a slave who had been brought to England from Boston in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and thus helped launch the movement to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire. The case ruled that slavery had no legal status in England as it had no common law or statutory law basis, and as such someone could not legally be a slave in England.After the formation of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787, William Wilberforce led the cause of abolition through the parliamentary campaign. It finally abolished the slave trade in the British Empire with the Slave Trade Act 1807.
Between 1807 and 1823, abolitionists showed little interest in abolishing slavery itself. Eric Williams presented economic data in Capitalism and Slavery to show that the slave trade itself generated only small profits compared to the much more lucrative sugar plantations of the Caribbean, and therefore slavery continued to thrive on those estates. However, from 1823 the British Caribbean sugar industry went into terminal decline, and the British parliament no longer felt they needed to protect the economic interests of the West Indian sugar planters.
In 1823, the Anti-Slavery Society was founded in London. Members included Joseph Sturge, Thomas Clarkson, William Wilberforce, Henry Brougham, Thomas Fowell Buxton, Elizabeth Heyrick, Mary Lloyd, Jane Smeal, Elizabeth Pease, and Anne Knight. Jamaican mixed-race campaigners such as Louis Celeste Lecesne and Richard Hill were also members of the Anti-Slavery Society.
On 19 February 1824, a committee of the whole house considered the Slave Trade Act 1807 and the granting of bounties on the capture and condemnation of slaves, and made the following resolutions:
Passage
Leave to bring in the Slave Trade Laws Bill to the House of Commons was granted on 19 February 1824 to Sir Robert Phillimore and Dr Stephen Lushington. The bill had its first reading in the House of Commons on 8 April 1824, presented by Thomas Spring Rice. The bill had its second reading in the House of Commons on 10 April 1824 and was committed to a committee of the whole house, which met on and reported on 12 April 1824, with amendments. The amended bill was considered and re-committed to a committee of the whole house on 5 May 1824, which met and reported on 7 May 1824. The amended bill had its third reading in the House of Commons on 14 May 1824 and passed, with amendments.The bill, referred to as the Slave Trade Laws Consolidation Bill, had its first reading in the House of Lords on 18 May 1824. The bill had its second reading in the House of Lords on 31 May 1824 and was committed to a committee of the whole house, which met on 17 June 1824 and reported on 18 June 1824, with amendments. The amended bill had its third reading in the House of Lords on 21 June 1824, during which a motion to re-commit the bill to a committee of the whole house was defeated, and passed, with amendments.
The amended bill was considered and agreed to by the House of Commons on 22 June 1824.
The bill was granted royal assent on 24 June 1824.
Provisions
Section 9 of the act created a capital offence, categorising slave trading as piracy.Section 25 of the act provided that His Majesty could by Order in Council, until 31 July 1827, authorise the removal of slaves from any British island in the West Indies to another British island there if deemed essential for their welfare, under stipulated conditions for their benefit and with security taken for their value.
Repealed enactments
Section 1 of the act repealed "...all the Acts and Enactments relating to the Slave Trade and the Abolition thereof, and the Exportation and Importation of Slaves, shall be and the same are hereby repealed, save and except in so far as they may have repealed any prior Acts or Enactments, or may have been acted upon, or may be expressly confirmed by this present Act.", effective on 1 January 1825.Section 30 of the act provided that nothing in the act would repeal the Prize Money, etc. Act 1817.
Subsequent developments
Section 25 of the act, authorising the removal of slaves between British West Indian islands under certain conditions for their welfare, was continued until the end of the next session of parliament after 31 July 1829 by section 1 of the .The capital offence for slave trading on the high seas was reduced to transportation for life by section 1 of the Punishment of Offences Act 1837.
Slavery remained legal in most of the British Empire until the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.
The whole act, except sections 2–11, 12 down to "taken to be in full force," 39, 40 and 47 were repealed by the Slave Trade Act 1873.
The act is still in force in the United Kingdom, but now has no legislative effect, all the provisions having been repealed by subsequent legislation, although portions may have been incorporated in later legislation.