Abolitionism is a movement to end
slavery, whether formal or informal. In
Western Europe and the
Americas, abolitionism is a historical movement to end the African and Indian
slave trade and set slaves free. King Charles I of Spain, usually known as
Emperor Charles V, following the example of the
Swedish monarch, passed
a law which would have abolished colonial slavery in 1542, although this law was not passed in the largest colonial states, and so was not enforced. Later, in the late 18th century, English and American
Quakers began to question the morality of slavery.
James Oglethorpe was among the first to articulate the Enlightenment case against slavery, banning it in the
Province of Georgia on
humanist grounds, arguing against it in Parliament, and eventually encouraging his friends
Granville Sharp and
Hannah More to vigorously pursue the cause. Soon after his death in 1785, they joined with
William Wilberforce and others in forming the
Clapham Sect. The
Somersett Case in 1772, which emancipated a slave in England, helped launch the British movement to abolish slavery. Though anti-slavery sentiments were widespread by the late 18th century, the colonies and emerging nations that used slave labour continued to do so:
French,
English and
Portuguese territories in the
West Indies;
South America; and the
Southern United States.