In the 18th and early 19th centuries slavery was a huge part of life across the globe. Many countries (for instance; the US and UK) bought slaves, and many countries unwillingly provided them. However not everyone agreed with slave-labour, least of all the slaves themselves, and there were many important figures who believed it was wrong, immoral and should be stopped. A combination of other factors also helped this point.
Although the main buyers of slaves were the wealthy, middle-class whites, many of these people disliked slavery and a great number of them fought against it. A very important example of this is Granville Sharp, he was one of the first non-slaves to fight against it and he was one of the few to start the campaign. Sharp went about this by fighting court cases in the favour of slave(s). He was involved in the well-known case of the middle-passage ship Zong; whereby the owners of the ship had taken too many slaves than they could fit causing malnutrition and diseases which killed many slaves and even a few crew members, the captain of the ship decided to throw the remaining ill slaves overboard and once back in England claimed he had done this due to a lack of water and requested the full amount of insurance. Unfortunately for him the insurance company found out this was a lie and with the help of Granville Sharp won the court case. This inspired many other white, middle-class men and women to join the fight against slavery. Another important figure is William Wilberforce, as an MP he had direct links to parliament and used these to make many successful speeches against the slave trade.
