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This year we celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the passing of the Abolition of Slavery Act (1807) in Britain. Influential Christians of the day like; William Wilberforce, Granville Sharp, Olaudah Equiano and Thomas Clarkson highlighted the awfulness of the Slave trade and dedicated their lives to its total annihilation.

Since 1502, there had been reports of African slaves transported to the New World. However, the large-scale deportation of Black Africans from countries such as Ghana started around 1640 as labour in the British Caribbean for sugar production. Soon trade was to be literally big business with slaves in the 1700’s being valued at £30.00 a head. It's thought that over 12 million Africans were loaded onto slave ships and that over three million died. The voyage across the Atlantic generally took six to eight weeks. Conditions were appalling in the packed and unhealthy ship holds, and up to one in five died.

It what became known as the Triangular trade, slaves were transported from West Africa to the Caribbean where they were sold into slavery to work on plantations, in mines and in a variety of skilled and unskilled tasks. Owners treated them with brutality and with disregard for their lives. The ships then came back to Europe laden with goods, which helped support a growing economy. British ships made about 11,000 slaving voyages. Liverpool, London and Bristol accounted for 95 per cent of these voyages.

On Sunday 25^th March we celebrate the passing of this act which was the first step in seeing this terrible trade come to an end. But we also reflect on those things that society once found acceptable and the price many millions paid with their lives. We are also reminded that still many people today whether children, young people and adults are still victims of slavery which all to often go unchallenged in this 21^st C.

For further information please see one of the following websites.

Historic Slave Trade

www.setallfree.not

www.free-at-last.org

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/slavery

http://www.garstangfairtrade.org.uk/slave_trade.htm

John Newton Priest, Hymn writer and former slave trader

http://www.anointedlinks.com/amazing_grace.html

http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/cnm/htmlpages/newton1.html

http://www.johnnewton.org/

http://www.amazinggracemovie.com/

Modern Slavery

www.stopthetraffick.org

http://www.tearfund.org/Extra/Freedom+Day/

http://www.antislavery.org/homepage/antislavery/trafficking.htm