triangular journey to the West Indies and Southern America where they were used to produce goods such as cotton, tobacco, sugarcane and coffee. These slave produced goods were shipped back to Britain where they were manufactured or refined, and either sold domestically or re- exported (Ramdin 1987).This growth of trade during the 16th and 17th century, brought about the establishment of the Colonial Board in 1661, its objective was to decide how best to populate and work the colonies of the new world. The political aspect of this was the increasing concern that emigration of white workers to the colonies would eventually leave a shortage of cheap labour at home. The Royal Family gave its patronage to the African slave trade in 1680 by the formation of the Royal African Company (Ramdin 1987). This move could be argued to be seen as giving legitimacy to the belief that the Africans where more suited to labour than the white peoples, it could be argued that it is here that we see the first signs of racism emerging in British society.The 18th century saw a great change in moral and religious beliefs brought about by the period of the enlightenment. From 1748, arguments arose against slavery. In 1758 the Quakers started to campaign against slavery and were quickly joined by the Protestants. By 1783 anti slavery had become a National political issue. This can in some part be attributed to the American and French Revolutions when the ideas of equality and liberty began to gain credence. In such a climate, slavery could not be seen as anything but wrong. Such support helped the abolitionist William Wilberforce to get a bill banning the trading of slaves through the House of Commons in 1796. However, war with France and a fear of radical uprising in Britain stopped the bill becoming law for another 11 years There are so many factors that help explain the death of the slave trade, but the reason they find success at the end of the 18th century is...
