The Slave Trade Act was passed by the British government, and it was intended to prohibit the slave trade throughout the British Empire. Though despite this, slavery still persisted in British colonies, until the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. It was estimated that about 12 million slaves were shipped across the Atlantic all the way to the Americas. Captains were fined if they continued on with the trade, though this did not prohibit the slave trade altogether. In fact, captains would often dump their captives overboard in order to avoid the stiff fines, if they spotted a Royal Navy ship. Reports of these atrocities ran rampant causing a revival of the abolitionist movement, later into the 19th century.

One island country that became a British colony was Jamaica, which is featured on page 9 in Part 1 in Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea.

Bibliography

Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 1999.

Information Source: "Slave Trade Act 1807." en.wikipedia.org. Wikipedia. Web. Date Accessed, 18 Sept. 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_Trade_Act_1807

Image source: https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/imperialism-5110f0ed-c503-4d13-a3b4-4398768fbee0