Anti-Slavery Society

The aim of the Anti-Slavery Society has always been the abolition of all forms of slavery throughout the world. The link between slavery and the status of colonised peoples was acknowledged when the Society merged with the Aborigines' Protection Society in 1909. Organisations and individuals in Australia working for Aboriginal rights informed the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines' Protection Society of civil rights infringements and abuses of power. The Society lobbied Australian governments on these matters.

In 1955 Lady Jessie Street, campaigner for women's rights and more broadly for human rights, was invited to join the committee of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines' Protection Society. In 1957 Street, who was living in London at the time, came back to Australia and spent two months travelling, gathering information for the Society. This led, indirectly, to the formation of the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement, and to campaigns for greater federal responsibility for Aboriginal affairs.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, activists continued to draw on the support of the Anti-Slavery society in their campaigns. The Society still exists today, as Anti-Slavery International.