Pheonixops
Proud Liberal
Your reading of history is very selective. For one example the Abolition movement had a lot to do with the British outlawing the slave trade in the early 19th century. And the American Abolitionist movement eventually led to the Emancipation Proclamation. See the Lincoln Douglas debates, it was a hot issue in 19th century America.
By even the most biased account, abolitionists never had a large movement or a large impact. The heart of anti slavery was the free labor movement, whereas poor whites and slave free farms could not compete against slave labor. Britain was in the same boat. They eradicated slavery across the world not as a moral issue but as a competitively economic one in the age of mercantilism. Of course, as the industrial revolution matured, slavery was down right dangerous. After all, who would have slaves working where they could destroy a business that operates on steam, electricity, and such? So much capital could be lost in a few minutes. Slavery also undermined Britons colonial holdings. As capitalism matured, farmers became more efficient and slavery less profitable.
The Lincoln Douglass debates confirmed Lincoln as a colonialist, which was a larger movement than the latter free labor movement. Lincoln won the election by combining these elements and naturally the abolitionists joined. Nevertheless, colonization was an idea where we would export freedmen back to Africa under the assumption that blacks were not compatible with white culture; a belief that most whites across the United States shared.
The squeaky clean history of doing "the right thing" for no other purpose than the fact that it was "morally right" rarely exists for any race, culture, or country.
Read this from page 41 to 46 and see how silly and ignorant that statement is. In fact 41 thru 46 says a lot about certain people.
Black Charlestonians: A Social History, 1822-1885 - Bernard Edward Powers - Google Books