The British slave trade was abolished on 1 May 1807, although vessels that had already sailed before that date could trade until 1 March 1808. Britain also made treaties with other European powers, notably Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands to suppress the slave trade.

Under several anti-slaving acts and anti-slaving treaties ships seized (by Royal Navy or customs officials) for illegally conveying slaves could be tried at vice-admiralty courts and mixed commission courts in Africa and the Caribbean. The ships could be taken as prize, the master fined and the slaves released. The slaves were not returned to their original settlements and many were enlisted into the British army, especially the West Indies Regiments and the Royal Africa Corps and the Royal Navy, most became indentured labourers and 'cared' for by customs officers or in Sierra Leone by the Liberated African Department.

The centre for the suppression of the slave trade was at Sierra Leone but most colonies had vice-admiralty courts and there were mixed commission courts in Cuba, Brazil, Cape Town and Jamaica.

The records of the trials can include lists of liberated Africans and ships' crew lists, logs and papers. Proceedings of the vice-admiralty courts may survive in the relevant Caribbean archive. The records of the mixed commission courts are at the National Archives in several Foreign Office series (FO 313, FO 314, FO 315, FO 129 and FO 131).

In the 1840s many Liberated Africans from Sierra Leone emigrated to the Caribbean and a few lists of emigrants can be found in the Sierra Leone correspondence series CO 267 in the National Archives.

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