A Black History of Britain

A BRIEF BLACK HISTORY OF BRITAIN......There are two photos here. One is of Queen Elizabeth 1 and the other of William Wilberforce. The lady started England's involvement in the Slave trade and the gentleman ended it. Elizabeth loved riches and possessions Indeed although she was not at war with Spain she would finance Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake to act as pirates on the Atlantic, plundering Spanish ships for the gold and wealth they were carrying from the New World,, just as long as she got her share. But she saw another source of income. The rich landowners who had crossed to America were short of labour to work on  projects, especially Cotton. She with Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Hawkins, decided to arrange slave ships to carry the blacks they could buy from chiefs, or Arab Traders, over to the new world. It was a very lucrative trade indeed. William Wilberforce was an Evangelical Christian. One of the main influences on his life was a man called Newton who had once been a slave trader and was repenting of what he had done. His story shook Wilberforce and finding other sympathetic Evangelical Protestants and members of an Abolition of the Slave Trade Movement which already existed, he fought in Parliament for the Abolition of Slavery He had well organised opposition. Nevertheless In 1834 the Abolition of Slavery Bill was passed, though Wilberforce died after its second reading, but comforted by the fact that it was to become law. What happened when it became law was that the British Navy started stopping slave ships and removing their cargo. Slavery was stopped in the West Indies and other colonies.