The history of British slave ownership has been buried: now its scale can be revealed

[BlueMTexpat]

6. You're absolutely correct that it wasn't just the British

and us. What a fascinating and wonderful heritage you have!

France continued with its slave trade - despite the republican ideals of the French Revolution in 1789 - until the first third of the 19th century. http://discoveringbristol.org.uk/slavery/routes/places-involved/europe/france/

For some interesting background about anti-slavery moments generally, check out Anti-Slavery International - the oldest human rights NGO in the world. It dates from 1839, but had precursor organizations, primarily affiliated with prominent Quakers, that worked very hard to abolish slavery from the 1700s. http://www.antislavery.org/english/who_we_are/default.aspx

Precursor abolitionist organizations were in part responsible for the Slave Trade Act of 1807 that abolished Britain's trade in slavery. http://abolition.e2bn.org/slavery_113.html

Their work continued through another precursor organization, the Anti-Slavery Society - officially the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions (SMEG) - that played a major part in the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. http://www.anti-slaverysociety.addr.com/huk-1833act.htm

Thomas Jefferson, himself a slaveholder, signed the Abolition of the Slave Trade bill in 1807. http://abolition.nypl.org/essays/us_constitution/5/ The bill did not stop slavery in the US, as we know only too well, but it did abolish the importation of slaves into "any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States." From then on, US slavery was institutionalized and did not depend on imports. Every one of us who has US ancestors dating back to the 1700s and earlier likely has at least one slaveholder in the bunch, I'm sorry to say.

For myself, I learned only last year that one of my earliest US ancestors from Wales who owned land in PA (which really surprised me!) had at least four slaves - noted in property records - who helped farm his land. And if any have seen the AMC TV series TURN: Washington's Spies, [http://www.amc.com/shows/turn] you can see that slavery existed in New England as well at that time. In fact, the British proclaimed that any slaves who ran away and fought for the British army would be freed when the war was over. http://www.revolutionary-war.net/slavery-and-the-revolutionary-war.html

Spain and Portugal both imported African slaves into Latin America. http://www.realhistories.org.uk/articles/archive/slavery-in-latin-america.html

And this is just the history of the Americas and Western European nations!

Anti-Slavery International very actively continues its work today. It is a global tragedy that this work is still necessary. http://www.antislavery.org/english/what_we_do/default.aspx