ABSTRACT
The slave trade or slavery itself had come under challenge in the British, French, Spanish, and Portuguese empires. The fifty years of revolutionary wars began in the North American segment of the British Empire. Some historians have interpreted the abolitions of the British slave trade and slavery as counterrevolutionary responses to the discontents aroused by the "industrial revolution". Perhaps British abolitionism emerged at a moment of national humiliation arising from the loss of the American colonies or served to retrieve Britain's threatened image as the torchbearer of liberty from the new American challenger. French and British abolitionism proceeded on opposite tracks from quite early in the French Revolution. British abolitionism may thus have caused the nation to undertake what may be modern history's most expensive and beneficial explicit overseas policy based primarily on moral premises. Britain's role has always been controversial because it raises the issue of moral action as a force in human history.
