African slave trade — decline and abolition
Practice Flashcards
Flip to reveal answersWhat is 'legitimate commerce'?
Track your progress — Sign up free to save your progress and get smart review reminders based on spaced repetition.
All 12 Flashcards — African slave trade — decline and abolition
Sign up free to track progress and get spaced-repetition review schedules.
Question
What is 'legitimate commerce'?
Answer
Trade in goods such as palm oil, groundnuts, timber and ivory that replaced the slave trade as a profitable West African export economy.
Question
Name the four economic reasons for the decline of the slave trade.
Answer
Industrialisation and new technology; rise of legitimate commerce; need for labour on African plantations; reduced productivity of slave labour.
Question
What did the Slave Trade Act of 1807 do?
Answer
Banned British subjects and ships from taking part in the transatlantic slave trade — it did not free enslaved people already in the colonies.
Question
What did the Slave Trade Act of 1824 do?
Answer
Made participating in the slave trade an act of piracy, strengthening enforcement of the 1807 ban.
Question
Which Act actually freed enslaved people in the British Empire, and when?
Answer
The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 — separate from and 16 years after the 1807 trade ban.
Question
Name three key figures in the British abolitionist movement.
Answer
Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp and William Wilberforce, plus formerly enslaved campaigner Olaudah Equiano.
Question
What was the West Africa Squadron?
Answer
A Royal Navy patrol force that intercepted illegal slave ships off West Africa, freeing an estimated 150,000 people over the century.
Question
How did European colonialism relate to abolition?
Answer
From the 1880s, European powers used 'anti-slavery' claims to justify conquering African territory — a later moral cover for imperial expansion, not an original cause of the 1807 ban.
Question
What is the economic argument for why abolition happened?
Answer
Declining Caribbean sugar profits and rising legitimate-commerce alternatives made ending the slave trade less costly for Britain by the early 1800s.
Question
What is the strongest evidence against a purely economic explanation of abolition?
Answer
The abolitionist campaign began in the 1780s, before profits had clearly declined, and 300,000+ people signed the 1792 petition with no economic benefit to themselves.
Question
Why must 'end of the slave trade' and 'end of slavery' be kept separate in an essay?
Answer
1807 ended the trade (transport of captives); slavery itself continued in British colonies until the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act freed enslaved people.
Question
What is the best essay structure for a Paper 3 'to what extent' question?
Answer
Argument for the claim with evidence, argument against with evidence, then a substantiated judgement on which factor mattered most.
Read the notes
Full study notes for African slave trade — decline and abolition
Topic 10.3 hub
The African slave trade (1500–1900)
More from Topic 10.3
All flashcards in this topic
History (2028+) exam skills
Paper structures & tips
Track your progress with spaced repetition
Sign up free — Aimnova tells you exactly which cards to review and when, so you remember everything before your IB exam.
Start Free