世界史关键时刻·英语30篇（2）

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大西洋奴隶贸易的废除：一场漫长运动

From the 1500s to early 1800s, over twelve million Africans were forcibly transported across the Atlantic to work on plantations.
Enlightenment thinkers like Montesquieu and Granville Sharp argued slavery violated natural rights and Christian ethics.
Formerly enslaved writers such as Olaudah Equiano published vivid autobiographies that swayed public opinion in Britain and beyond.
Quaker groups organized petitions, boycotts of slave-grown sugar, and lectures—making abolition a mainstream moral issue by the 1780s.
In 1807, Britain banned its own slave trade, using naval patrols to intercept illegal ships along West African coasts.
The United States followed in 1808, though domestic slavery continued and smuggling persisted for decades.
Brazil—the last major importer—officially ended its trade only in 1850 after intense British diplomatic pressure.
Abolition did not free enslaved people immediately; emancipation came later, often with compensation paid to owners, not victims.
African resistance—including revolts aboard ships and maroon communities in Jamaica and Suriname—had always challenged the system’s stability.
Today, historians stress that abolition succeeded only through transnational activism, Black leadership, and relentless moral argument—not benevolent legislation alone.