On March 25th, 1807, The British Parliament abolished the slave trade following a long campaign against it by Quakers and others. The Act outlawed all slave trade within the British Empire, but did not abolish slavery entirely. Instead, the law prohibited the trade of human beings, and any British naval captain who was caught transporting slaves was fined £100 for every slave found on board his ship.
On August 24th, 1833, the Slavery Abolition Act was passed by British Parliament, and slavery was officially abolished by law in 1834. This law was enforced across all of the British Empire, including South Africa, which was a British colony at the time, as many colonists at the Cape had a great deal of capital invested in their slaves. Colonists were particularly annoyed by the fact that compensation for the slaves was to be collected personally in England, and in many instances the cost would be more than the money received.