When was slavery abolished throughout the British Empire?
- 1793
- 1812
- 1833
- 1867
Answer: 1833
In 1833 the British Parliament abolished slavery throughout the British Empire, which included Canada. This came after Upper Canada’s first step in 1793 and Britain’s ban on buying and selling slaves in 1807.
Learn more: Ending slavery
- The first movement to abolish the transatlantic slave trade began in the British Parliament in the late 1700s.
- In 1793 Upper Canada, led by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, became the first province in the Empire to move toward abolishing slavery.
- Simcoe, a Loyalist military officer, was Upper Canada’s first Lieutenant Governor and founded the City of York (now Toronto).
- In 1807 the British Parliament banned the buying and selling of slaves.
- In 1833 Britain abolished slavery throughout the Empire.
- Thousands of slaves escaped from the United States, followed “the North Star” and settled in Canada through the Underground Railroad, a Christian anti-slavery network.
- Mary Ann (Shadd) Carey, an anti-slavery activist, became the first woman publisher in Canada in 1853. She helped found and edit The Provincial Freeman, a weekly newspaper.