The Anglo-Egyptian Slave Trade Convention, also known as Anglo-Egyptian Convention for the Suppression of the Slave Trade or Anglo-Egyptian Convention for the Abolition of Slavery was a treaty between

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

and the

Khedivate of Egypt The Khedivate of Egypt ( or , ; ota, خدیویت مصر ') was an autonomous tributary state of the Ottoman Empire, established and ruled by the Muhammad Ali Dynasty following the defeat and expulsion of Napoleon Bonaparte's forces which brou ...

from 1877. The first version of 1877 was followed by an addition in 1884. It formally banned the slave trade to Egypt. The treaty of 1877 officially banned the slave trade to Sudan, thus formally putting an end on the import of slaves from

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

.Kenneth M. Cuno:
Modernizing Marriage: Family, Ideology, and Law in Nineteenth- and Early ...
' Sudan was at this time the main import of male slaves to Egypt. This ban was followed in 1884 by a ban on the import of white women; this law was directed against the import of white women (mainly from

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

and usually

Circassians The Circassians (also referred to as Cherkess or Adyghe; Adyghe and Kabardian: Адыгэхэр, romanized: ''Adıgəxər'') are an indigenous Northwest Caucasian ethnic group and nation native to the historical country-region of Circassia in ...

), which were the preferred choice for harem concubines among the Egyptian upper class. The import of male slaves from Sudan as

soldiers A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...

, civil service and eunuchs, as well as the import of female slaves from Caucasus as harem women were the two main sources of slave import to Egypt, thus these laws were, at least on paper, major blows on Slavery in Egypt. Slavery itself was not banned, only the import of slaves. However a ban on the sale on existing slaves was introduced alongside a law giving existing slaves the legal right to apply for

manumission Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing enslaved people by their enslavers. Different approaches to manumission were developed, each specific to the time and place of a particular society. Historian Verene Shepherd states that t ...

References

{{Reflist * Francesca Biancani:
Sex Work in Colonial Egypt: Women, Modernity and the Global Economy
' * Seong Hyun Kim:
A Comparative Study of Anti-Slavery in 19th Century Middle East and North Africa: The Cases of the Egyptian Khedivate and the Husaynid Beylik of Tunis
' * Diane Robinson-Dunn:
The Harem, Slavery and British Imperial Culture: Anglo-Muslim Relations in
' 1877 in Africa Anti-slavery treaties Abolitionism in Africa Slavery in Egypt Slavery in Sudan 1877 in Egypt 1877 in the British Empire 1877 treaties 1884 in Egypt 1884 in the British Empire 1884 treaties Treaties of the Khedivate of Egypt Treaties of the United Kingdom (1801–1922) African slave trade Egypt–United Kingdom relations