Year 9 Abolition Quiz

1. What did the 1807 Abolition Act do?

• a) It made it illegal to have a slave in Britain.

• b) It outlawed slavery in the British Empire.

• c) It outlawed the buying and selling of slaves in the British Empire.

2. What did the 1833 Abolition Act do?

• a) Outlawed slavery in the West Indies only.

• b) Outlawed slavery across most of the British Empire.

• c) Outlawed the slave trade and the enslavement of people across the British Empire.

• d)  Emancipated any person who was currently enslaved in the British Empire.

3. Which of these is not Adam Smith’s argument?

• a) That slavery was not economically beneficial. Freed people were happier, worked harder and spent their wages which was more important for the economy as a whole.

• b) That slavery benefitted the economy. Enslaved people could work for no wages on plantations, increasing the production of crops to be exported to Britain.

4. What was the name of the politician who first introduced Abolition bills to Parliament?

• a) Thomas Clarkson

• b) Edward Long

• c) William Wilberforce

• d) Granville Sharp

5. How did the actions of ex-slaves help bring about the end of slavery?

• a) They wrote autobiographies like, the Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, which provided a personalised account of the horrific experiences of slavery.

• b) By participating in a group called the Sons of Africa. This was made up of formerly enslaved African men living in London, and played a key role in the abolitionist movement.

• c) Some ex-slaves, helped out by lawyers who were against slavery, went to court to claim their freedom. More and more judges, impressed by the slaves’ arguments, allowed them to go free.

• d) All of the above.

6. How did the actions of religious campaigners like William Wilberforce help bring about the end of slavery?

• a) Thomas Clarkson collected together evidence of the horrors of the Middle Passage and the treatment that slaves faced.

• b) Granville Sharp helped former slaves in court cases against their old masters and helped bring the injustice of slavery to the British public’s attention.

• c) Christian groups, such as the Quakers, thought that slavery was a sin against God and religion. They spread the anti-slavery message amongst the people of Britain.

• d) All of the above.

7. Which of these was the argument against abolition put forward by Matthew Gregson (Source D)?

• a) Abolition would mean financial loss of more than £7 million to Liverpool [more than £6 billion today] and the whole town would suffer.

• b) Abolition would mean financial loss of more than £70 million to Liverpool [more than 6 billion today] and the middle-class merchants would suffer.

• c) Abolition would mean financial loss of more than £700 million to Liverpool [more than 6 billion today] and the working-class consumers would suffer

8. What did not an economic reason why slavery was abolished?

• a) Cuba and Brazil began selling sugar cheaper than the British owned countries.

• b) Slaves started to be paid wages by plantation owners which meant that they were more expensive to employ, leading to diminished profits.

• c) Merchants in Britain began to move their money away from the slave trade to banking and industry.

9. Which of the facts about Parliament below are true?

• a) In 1802, over 419 petitions with a total of 390,000 signatures were handed to Parliament in support of Thomas Clarkson’s abolition bill.

• b) In 1792, over 519 petitions with a total of 390,000 signatures were handed to Parliament in support of William Wilberforce’s abolition bill.

• c) In 1822, over 619 petitions with a total of 390,000 signatures were handed to Parliament in support of Granville Sharp’s abolition bill.

• d) None of the above.

Which of these are not a slave revolt that occurred?

• a) Antigua 1736 - Plantation owners on Antigua discovered a slave plot to steal gunpowder and blow up the island's richest slave owners at a ball.

• b) Tacky's Revolt 1760 - Tacky's Revolt erupted on Jamaica. This was the largest British slave uprising of the 18th century.

• c) Birmingham 1816 - Slaves rose up in Birmingham and burned a quarter of the city’s cotton before the rebellion was suppressed.