Now there are assessments that emphasize the importance of extra-parliamentary agitation and the influence of slave revolts in the colonies, and consider the pertinence of social and economic change in England and the empire. In the last three decades, however, the focus has shifted. Until quite recently the history of the British anti-slavery movement centred on the actions of its leaders, William Wilberforce and the other Clapham Sect evangelicals in particular. The bicentennial of the abolition of the British slave trade presents an opportunity to revisit the history of the early abolitionists in England.
