The abolition of the slave trade in East Africa, Arabia, and Turkey was a lengthy process, the most intense and climactic period occurring in the final third of the nineteenth century. This coincided with the conquest of Africa by European states. Just as the link between capitalism and abolitionism in the late eighteenth century has been the subject of controversy, so too has the link between imperialism and the ending of the slave trade in Africa. Whereas slavery was abolished at a stroke in British colonies in 1833, anti-slavery policies had a more gradual effect in Africa, starting with anti-slave trade agreements in the early nineteenth century and concluding with abolition in the late nineteenth century. Thereafter, coercive labour systems and slavery persisted. This lengthy process necessarily involved ambiguities, compromises, and missed opportunities, but it was a process in which British humanitarian public opinion was the driving force.

Changing historical perspectives have mirrored broader attitudes to empire. In the first part of the twentieth century, the suppression of the slave trade was considered a humanitarian triumph, untainted by political and economic interest. The tone was set by memoirs of key figures.