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On All Things Considered this week (Sunday 25 March at 8.31am, repeated Thursday 29 March at 6.03pm) we mark the 200th anniversary of the act to abolish the transatlantic slave trade.

The horrors of the trade are being brought home vividly at the moment in radio and television programmes, graphic exhibitions and a major cinema release starring Ioan Gruffydd.

The Welsh actor plays William Wilberforce, the MP who devoted his life to the abolitionist cause, a model of faith-based social concern for many Christians.

Admiration for Wilberforce and his evangelical friends, however, can easily mask a very uncomfortable fact - many Christians of his day had no qualms about owning other human beings, and neither did some church institutions.

On today's programme we look at the links between religion and slavery, and we also explore the extent to which the trade in people continues, and what's being done to prevent it.

Joining Roy Jenkins for the discussion are the ecumenist and theologian Bishop Dr Joe Aldred, chair of the council of Black-led churches in Britain; the Revd Dr Carrie Pemberton, Executive Officer of - the Churches Alert to Sex Trafficking Across Europe; and the Revd Bill Rowell, world mission officer for the Church in Wales' St Asaph Diocese.

For more information about the slave trade and its legacy, take a look at the Â鶹Éç's Religion site.

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