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Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 Facts & Worksheets

The Slavery Abolition Act is the act of the British Parliament that abolished slavery in most British colonies, freeing more than 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa as well as a small number in Canada.

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The Slavery Abolition Act is the act of the British Parliament that abolished slavery in most British colonies, freeing more than 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa as well as a small number in Canada.

See the fact file below for more information on the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 or alternatively, you can download our 20-page Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

SLAVERY IN CANADA

  • Slavery was introduced to New France in 1629. This followed by the colonization of the British empire through the years. Black slaves arrived in Canada towards the end of the seventeenth century.
  • They were smuggled, taken as war captives, or bought by Canadian merchants on their business trips to the south, in Louisiana or in the French Caribbean.
  • In Canada, however, the majority of slaves were of Aboriginal origin. Native wars customarily subjugated captives before the arrival of the French, but this practice acquired new meanings in the context of western expansion.
  • Around 1671-1831, the French acquired captives from their Aboriginal partners as tokens of friendship during commercial and diplomatic exchanges.
  • Two thirds of the 4,200 slaves in the area of Canada were of indigenous ancestry and one third were of African descent.
  • The slaves were generally very young: the average age among natives would have been 14 years old and 18 years old for Blacks.
  • Unlike domestic servants or workers, slaves were considered private property: they belonged to an owner. They could be “granted” (via inheritance), loaned, bartered, or sold, according to the wishes of their owner.
  • Under British rule, slaves in Canada lived in the home of their master, often with other servants or workers who were white, and shared the same living conditions.
  • Slavery in Canada was less prominent than in other countries because obtaining them was very expensive.
  • Industries such as the fur trade and small farming operations required little manual labour so slaves were not highly needed.
  • In 1793, Ontario and Quebec legislated for the first time against the importation of slaves, heralding the gradual elimination and abolition of slavery.

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT

  • In the 1770s, British abolitionists opposed the transatlantic trade in African people. Such antislavery views spread to Upper Canada, influencing the passage there of the 1793 Act to Limit Slavery.
  • While initial attempts were unsuccessful, Chief Justice William Osgoode placed on the law books the ruling that slavery was inconsistent with British law in 1803. This did not legally abolish slavery, but 300 slaves were set free in Quebec.
  • The British Parliament then passed the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which outlawed the international slave trade, but not slavery itself.
  • Soon after, the United States, the Netherlands, and France also prohibited the importation of slaves.
  • Slave uprisings rose in the next decades such as in Haiti and Jamaica. It helped convince many that emancipation had to come.
  • This finally led to the legislation in Parliament in 1833 and took effect on August 1, 1834. It decreed the freeing of some 800,000 slaves in the British Empire such as Canada, mainly in the Caribbean islands.
  • Former slaves over the age of six were redesignated as “apprentices”, and their servitude was abolished between 1838 and 1840.
  • The end of worldwide slavery occurred in phases in different parts of the world. It took a civil war to end slavery in the United States from 1861 to 1865.
  • President Abraham Lincoln opposed slavery and issued his Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, calling for the freeing of slaves in areas of the rebellion.
  • In 1865, the Constitution was ratified to include the Thirteenth Amendment, officially abolishing all forms of slavery in the United States.
  • The last open slave market in Havana, Cuba, was shut down in 1869 and in 1888, slavery was also abolished in Brazil.

IMPACT OF THE ACT

  • The Act made Canada a free territory for enslaved American blacks. This drove thousands of fugitive slaves and free blacks to Canadian soil between 1834 and the early 1860s.
  • The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 was repealed by the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1998, replaced by the Human Rights Act 1998 which prohibited the holding of persons as slaves.
  • With the rise of Human Rights reform, Article 8 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) states: “No one shall be held in slavery; slavery and the slave trade in all their forms shall be prohibited. No one shall be held in servitude. No one shall be required to perform force or compulsory labour.”
  • In most countries around the world, slavery has become an illegal act. However, there are still problems relating to slavery that we still have to face and eliminate entirely.

Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 across 20 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the Slavery Abolition Act which is the act of the British Parliament that abolished slavery in most British colonies, freeing more than 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa as well as a small number in Canada.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Slavery Abolition Act Facts
  • Ancient Slavery
  • The Struggle of Chloe Cooley
  • Slavery in Canada
  • Voices of the Past
  • The Black Moses
  • Forms of Modern Slavery
  • Penalties of the Crimes
  • Pictures to Ponder
  • Human Rights
  • Maze to Freedom

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Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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