During the 1700s, the slave trade transported thousands of Africans across the Atlantic Ocean and forced them to work as slaves on plantations in America. This trade brought huge wealth to the shipbuilders, shipowners, merchants, and traders who ran it. 

Many people began to condemn the slave trade and fought for it to be abolished. The slave trade ended in the British Empire in 1807. It was finally abolished within the empire in 1833. Slavery continued elsewhere, however. It did not come to an end in the United States until after the Civil War in 1865. It continued in Brazil until 1889.

In 1788, an association was formed in London to encourage British exploration and trade in Africa. Many British explorers set out to explore Africa along its rivers. Probably the most famous of all the expeditions was led by David Livingstone, who set out to look for the source of the Nile River.

*The abolitionist movement was strongest in England and the U.S.A. Many people joined the struggle to end slavery.