The Right Honourable Lord Henry Peter Brougham, PC, QC, FRS (19 September 1778 – 7 May 1868) was a British Member of Parliament and later Lord High Chancellor who introduced the Slave Trade Felony Act 1811, criminalizing the slave trade by foreign traders throughout the British Empire and allowing Britain to seize slave ships from their colonies as well as from other countries. This was more effective in stopping the slave trade than the Slave Trade Act 1807, which simply imposed fines on British sailors caught with slaves.
As a result of Brougham's act, Britain gained more clout with slave trading nations as they could now seize their ships. This led to Britain forcing over 50 African nations into treaties against slavery, and deposing the King of Lagos when he refused to ban the slave trade.
Brougham won popular renown for helping defeat the 1820 Pains and Penalties Bill, an attempt by the widely disliked George IV to annul his marriage to Caroline of Brunswick. His actions in this case, in which he gave a well-known speech in the House of Lords, made him the most famous man in Britain.
The main highlights of Brougham's political career came when he was Lord Chancellor from 1830 to 1835. They were the 1832 Reform Act and the 1833 Slavery Act, both of which Brougham helped push through. The first of these two bills, also called the Representation of the People Act, made major reforms to the electoral system, making it more fair and removing voting zones with only one voter. The Slavery Act made slavery illegal throughout the British Empire to own a slave. The only exceptions were Sri Lanka and parts of India.
On 22 November 1830, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Brougham and Vaux, of Brougham in the County of Westmorland.