After learning about the cruelties of the slave trade, and about how the immense profits affected Britain, I became curious about why the British public would choose to end slavery. If it was so beneficial to them, then why stop? I decided to use this topic for my assignment so that I could find more information about why the slave trade was abolished. When researching this, I found it intriguing that many of the factors that ended the slave trade were to do with people, rather than financial gain. I enjoyed using the abolition of the slave trade as my assignment topic, as it allowed me to learn surprising facts about the late 16th- early 18th centuries.
During the 170 years of the British slave trade over 12 million Africans were kidnapped or sold into the slavery. The
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There were many reasons why the brutality of the slave trade was ended including Josiah Wedgwood 's Seal, Olaudah Equiano 's autobiography, and William Wilberforce 's Parliamentary Bills. But which factor was the most important? Josiah Wedgwood 's Seal was partly responsible for the abolition of the slave trade. Wedgwood was an entrepreneur who had founded an immensely successful pottery company, and his products were sold all over Britain. He was completely against the slave trade and in 1787 he created a Seal to be the logo of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. The seal had a chained African on it, and stated: “Am I not a Man and a Brother.” Josiah Wedgewood 's seal soon became