The ending of apprenticeship completed a long phase of struggle in the antislavery movement. In its wake, there was a desire by activists to extend their achievement beyond the British empire and to work to end slavery internationally. In 1839, Joseph Sturge, an English Quaker, founded the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. At a meeting at Exeter Hall on 17 and 18 April, the principles of the new society were laid out, with an emphasis on employing only peaceful methods to end slavery and the slave trade. Many of the former campaigners were involved in the new association, including Thomas Fowell Buxton, Dr Stephen Lushington and Daniel O'Connell. Sturge was anxious to establish relationships with Lewis Tappan in New York, rather than with William Lloyd Garrison in Boston. Tappan had been one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, but he had found himself increasingly at odds with the radical politics of Garrison. The differences resulted in his departure to form the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Sturge hoped to work with the new American association, but only if they felt able to commit to his peace principles.

Sturge's philosophy was ‘to bring what had been gained in aid of what yet remained to be accomplished’. Clearly, much remained to be accomplished in the anti-slavery struggle. The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society immediately became involved in a number of issues that demonstrated that the struggle was far from over.