An Act for the Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Colonies

Parliament of the United Kingdom28 August 1833

The Act for the abolition of slavery throughout the British colonies, in force from 1 August 1834. It bound the freed people to a term of apprenticeship and granted twenty million pounds to compensate those who had owned them.

The Act is dated 28 August 1833. Its full title names three purposes: abolishing slavery in the British colonies, “promoting the Industry of the manumitted Slaves”, and compensating “the Persons hitherto entitled to the Services of such Slaves”. Section 12 declares everyone held in slavery in those colonies on 1 August 1834 free from that day. The opening sections turn them into apprenticed labourers bound to work for their former owners for a term of years, and section 24 provides for raising twenty million pounds for the owners.

It is cited in this wiki to mark the difference between the end of the British slave trade in 1807 and the end of slavery in the colonies a generation later.

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