In Siam it was personal bondage, rather than slavery in the Western sense. But it was bad enough and it was abolished as late as 1874 in the reign of King Chulalongkorn. However, because of strong opposition from vested interests, its total eradication was only achieved in 1905.

In Europe, and especially in the case of England, slave trade assumed unprecedented proportions in the 17th and 18th centuries, when millions of Africans were rounded up and shipped to America to work on the plantations in the colonies.

In preparation for the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade next year, British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently voiced "deep sorrow" for England's historic role in the trade in America and elsewhere.

The abolitionist movement began with a group of Cantabrigians who in the 1780s started a campaign against slavery that eventually led to its total ban. Specifically, the year 2007 will be the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act of 1807 in England. While the Lord Chief Justice Thomas Denham, a Johnian (member of St John's College, Cambridge) famously described slavery as "the foulest stain that ever rested on the character of the country", several other Johnians were prominent in the ongoing abolitionist movement throughout the 19th century. Perhaps most remarkable were the Reverend Thomas Clarkson (BA 1783) and William Wilberforce MP (BA 1781), who led the campaign to end the slave trade in Britain.

Wilberforce and Clarkson could not have been more dissimilar, but what united them was an unshakeable belief in the moral rightness of the abolition of slavery.

Whilst Wilberforce was not known for his studies at St John's College, Clarkson was a diligent, disciplined student and won the vice-chancellor's Latin essay prize for senior bachelors. Its subject, "Is it lawful to make slaves of others against their will?", affected him deeply. In 1781 he co-founded The Committee to Abolish the Slave Trade. Clarkson was its organiser and researcher - "a moral steam engine" as the poet Coleridge called him - and he set about mobilising the growing public support for the abolitionist movement throughout the country.

The campaign needed a political figurehead and Wilberforce, a popular, independent MP who was friendly with the prime minister, was the perfect candidate. Public support backed Wilberforce's parliamentary campaign but the spectre of revolution, and war with France, dampened enthusiasm. In 1804 the campaign was revived and in 1807 an Act of Parliament abolished the British slave trade. Clarkson and Wilberforce's role in the movement gradually receded but they both lived to see the passing of the Abolition of Slavery Act in 1833.

Cambridge University will mark the bicentenary with a programme of events at St John's College in February. A conference entitled "Campaigning - Then and Now", will consider the consciousness-raising methods employed by the abolitionists and the issues of contemporary slavery. The anniversary will be marked with an exhibition in the chapel and a musical collaboration between the choir and a gospel choir. A university essay prize will be awarded and various projects with secondary schools are planned.

No doubt the United Nations and the various human-rights institutions around the world will also commemorate this important milestone in humankind's progress. However, slavery in its modern form still exists in our midst. The struggle for its total eradication must therefore continue.

Article adapted with courtesy from 'Johnian News' of St John's College, Cambridge, Michaelmas Term 2006.

Sumet Jumsai

Special to The Nation