abolitionisme

Abolitionism, or abolitionisme in Dutch, is the social and political movement focused on ending slavery and the transatlantic slave trade and on securing civil rights for people formerly enslaved. The movement arose in the 18th century in Europe and the Americas and grew rapidly in the 19th century, drawing on religious groups, humanitarian ideas, and Enlightenment concepts of natural rights. Abolitionists used pamphleteering, public lectures, petition campaigns, boycotts, and political lobbying to influence legislation and public opinion.

Across regions, abolitionism achieved major legislative milestones. In Britain, the Slave Trade Act of 1807 ended the international slave trade, and the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 began the process of ending slavery in most of the British Empire, with complete emancipation in the 1830s-1840s. In the United States, abolitionism helped shift public opinion in the decades before the Civil War; emancipation began with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and culminated in the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, which abolished slavery nationwide. The Netherlands enacted abolition legislation in 1863 for its colonial empire, with full emancipation completed in its Caribbean territories by 1873.

Abolitionism influenced later civil rights movements and continues to inform campaigns against human trafficking and modern slavery. Its legacy lies in codifying the principle that freedom and equality are universal rights, even as debates about race, colonization, and memory persisted.