UNISON the public service union - Breaking the chains

Events

The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed by the House of Commons in 1807 which made it unlawful for any British subject to capture and transport slaves. This change in the law resulted from campaigning outside and within the British Houses of Parliament and extended beyond Britain and Europe to the Americas, the Caribbean as well as in Africa and Asia.

Another slave workers' uprising was led by Sam Sharpe who organised a peaceful strike across many estates in western Jamaica with the mistaken belief that emancipation had already been granted by the British Parliament. The strike caused two detailed Parliamentary Inquiries that contributed to the 1833 Abolition of Slavery across the British Empire.

The British Houses of Parliament campaign was primarily led by William Wilberforce, Lord Grenvill, Reverend Thomas Clarkson and Olaudah Equiano.

Calender of events

Date	Event	Venue	Contact
21 August	Lecture: The ideological origins of chattel slavery - Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, Temple University, USA	Merseyside Maritime Museum	http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/
11 October	Debate: Reparations - Should financial payments be made to members of the African Diaspora who are descendants of enslaved Africans?	Merseyside Maritime Museum	http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/
27 October	Exhibition: 'London, Sugar and Slavery' - London's involvement in transatlantic slavery and its legacy for the capital	Museum in Docklands	http://www.museumindocklands.org.uk