(AURN News) — Tomorrow, Aug. 1, marks the date the Slavery Abolition Act took effect across most of the British Empire in 1834.
The law legally ended slavery for most enslaved people, but it did not grant immediate, unconditional freedom.
Instead, many were forced into a temporary “apprenticeship” system that required them to continue laboring for their former enslavers.
On Aug. 1, 1838, the apprenticeship system ended early, bringing full emancipation to the Caribbean and South Africa.
In some other British territories, including India, slavery was not formally abolished until 1843.
The United States abolished slavery nationally in December 1865, when the 13th Amendment was ratified. The amendment was ratified Dec. 6, 1865.
That came 31 years after the British law took effect in 1834 and 27 years after the apprenticeship system ended in 1838.
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