Editor Merlynne Francique said: "With 2007 being the bicentenary of the act to abolish the slave trade, we thought it would be interesting and thought-provoking to look at this significant date in history. History tends to focus on the contribution of one man, William Wilberforce, but there was a considerable body of people who campaigned vigorously and boycotted slave-grown produce to raise awareness about the evil of the slave trade."
The article quotes Richard Reddie, project director of Set All Free, on the role black people played in the move towards abolition. He said: "Abolition did not begin with polite conversations in Parliament or in church halls or community centres. It started with Africans themselves. It was the enslaved and marooned ancestors who laid the architecture for the abolition of the slave trade. They were the first people who recognised that slavery was an effrontery to their human rights."
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