<Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> Status: Repealed </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> Text of statute as originally enacted </Th> </Tr> <P> The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will . IV c. 73) abolished slavery throughout the British Empire . This Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom expanded the jurisdiction of the Slave Trade Act 1807, making the purchase or ownership of slaves illegal within the British Empire, with the exception "of the Territories in the Possession of the East India Company", Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and Saint Helena . The Act was repealed in 1997 as a part of wider rationalisation of English statute law; however, later anti-slavery legislation remains in force . </P> <P> In May 1772, Lord Mansfield's judgment in the Somersett's Case emancipated a slave in England and thus helped launch the movement to abolish slavery . The case ruled that slavery was unsupported by law in England and no authority could be exercised on slaves entering English or Scottish soil . In 1785, English poet William Cowper wrote: </P>

When was slavery abolished in the british colonies