Advocating Abolition Timeline Transatlantic Slave Trade

A Timeline of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its Abolition 16th Century 1562 1564-65 1567 1607 1618 1619 1623 1625 1626 1649 1655 1655 1656 1657 1660s 1672 1675 1668 1683 1685-86 1690 1692 1698 1699 1702-13 1727 Sir John Hawkins, backed by Gonson and other London merchants, leaves Plymouth with three ships, making him the first English slave trader. He takes 300 Africans and trades them with the Spanish and Portuguese for sugar, hides, spices and pearls Backed by Queen Elizabeth I, Hawkins makes his second slavery voyage trading 500 Africans for precious metals, pearls and jewels Hawkins makes his third and final slavery voyage, again with the Queen’s investment, involving six ships, including one captained by his cousin Sir Francis†¦show more content†¦Chief Justice Lord Mansfield rules that enslaved people in England cannot be forced to return to the West Indies. This ruling does not entitle slaves in England their freedom John Stedman joins a military expedition to suppress a slave rebellion in Surinam, South America and is appalled by the inhumanity shown to Africans. In 1796 he publishes ‘The Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam’, a full account of his experiences that becomes a classic of abolitionist literature John Wesley, an early leader of the Methodist movement, publishes anti-slavery tract Thoughts Upon Slavery 1775 1775-83 1778 1781 1783 1786 1787 1788 1788 Royal Commission is set up to take evidence on the slave trade American War of Independence. France seizes Grenada, Tobago and St Kitts from Britain but retains only Tobago after the Peace of Versailles The Knight vs Wedderburn legal case in Edinburgh rules that enslavement is incompatible with Scots law The Zong case causes outrage and strengthens the abolition campaign: 470 Africans are forced onto the slave ship Zong. The cramped conditions are so appalling that seven crew members and sixty Africans died from sickness; the remaining 133 sick