# Slavery in England **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 15, 2004, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slavery-in-england/234524 "2004-03-15T22:54:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2004, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slavery-in-england/234524/1 "2004-03-15T22:54:59Z")
When the English did away with slavery in the early 1800’s were there actual slaves in England? Or were they all in the colonies? Were the slaves all Black, or were there Asian and/or Caucasian slaves as well? I realize that there was a fine line between “slavery” and “indentured servitude”… but I’m talking acutal slaves. While I’m asking, does anyone know when the other Western European nations (France, Germany, Spain, Holland etc.) outlawed slavery? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2004, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slavery-in-england/234524/2 "2004-03-15T23:13:04Z")
It’s a completely different timescale to the question asked, but Oliver Cromwell oversaw the exporting of Irish prisoners as slaves in the 1600s. There’s a (highly nationalist) site here: [http://republican-news.org/archive/1997/February20/20stkt.html](http://republican-news.org/archive/1997/February20/20stkt.html) ---
**Author:** ![Pythagras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/45deac/32.png) [@Pythagras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pythagras)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2004, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slavery-in-england/234524/3 "2004-03-15T23:24:02Z")
> [@vl\_mungo](#): > > When the English did away with slavery in the early 1800’s were there actual slaves in England? Or were they all in the colonies? Were the slaves all Black, or were there Asian and/or Caucasian slaves as well? I realize that there was a fine line between “slavery” and “indentured servitude”… but I’m talking acutal slaves. > > While I’m asking, does anyone know when the other Western European nations (France, Germany, Spain, Holland etc.) outlawed slavery? I dont know if this is relevant or not, but at a certain point in English history slavery (in the roman sense) was outlawed due to the expansion of the Catholic Church. I’m curious, when somebody like Thoman Jefferson entered England or France, what was the legal status of their slaves on those voyages? ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slavery-in-england/234524/4 "2004-03-16T00:07:21Z")
According to the BBC, there were some [14,000 black slaves in Britain](http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/immig_emig/england/stoke_staffs/article_1.shtml) at the time of the 1772 Somerset decision, which began the process of ending slavery there. (The Somerset decision didn’t free slaves, but did make it impossible for them to be exported from Britain itself. The buying and selling of slaves was outlawed in 1807; existing slaves were freed in 1833.) These slaves were all imports, and all ultimately of African heritage. Most had been made slaves in the British colonies and brought back to Britain: colonies often had special clauses in their charters that aknowledged that their slaves could be brought into England and still be treated as such. Of course, long, long before the African slave trade began in the 15th century, there had been other slaves in Britain–white slaves. The Romans who colonized Britain in ancient times used slaves, and the practice of European slavery (I hesitate to call it white slavery, since that brings something else to mind…) persisted until the high Middle Ages. The Domesday Book of 1087, which recorded every scrap of land and every inhabitant of England also records the existence of slaves. The interesting thing about this medieval British slavery is that it just died out (or rather transformed into the less stringent legal concept of serfdom), without much of an aggressive campaign against it. (Though the Church did mount a campaign to prohibit selling Christian slaves to infidels.) By 1200, slavery had simply vanished from England. Thus by the time African slaves began to be imported from the colonies into Britain several hundred years later, there were no white slaves left in the country. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slavery-in-england/234524/5 "2004-03-16T03:03:10Z")
> [@Pythagras](#): > > I’m curious, when somebody like Thoman Jefferson entered England or France, what was the legal status of their slaves on those voyages? Strictly speaking, any slaves brought to France were free. However, many did not know this was the case. Some undoubtedly claimed their freedom, and then had to learn very quickly how to support themselves in a foreign country. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slavery-in-england/234524/6 "2004-03-16T08:22:36Z")
Sally Hemming’s son Madison Hemmings gave an account in 1873 of his mother’s stay in France and return to Virginia. In 1787, Thomas Jefferson sent for Hemmings to escort his daughter Maria from Virginia to Paris: > [@](#): > > Their stay (my mother’s and Maria’s) was just about eighteen months [it was really twenty-six months]. But during that time my mother became Mr. Jefferson’s concubine, and when he was called back home she was _enciente_ [pregnant] by him. He desired to bring my mother back to Virginia with him but she demurred. She was just beginning to understand the French language well, and in France she was free, while if she returned to Virginia she would be re-enslaved. So she refused to return with him. To induce her to do so, he promised her extraordinary privileges, and made a solemn pledge that her children should be freed at the age of twenty-one years. In consequence of his promises, on which she implicitly relied, she returned with him to Virginia. Soon after their arrival, she gave birth to a child, of whom Thomas Jefferson was the father.