Slavery didn't exist in Britain, it existed in the colonies, primarily in the Caribbean. And even though it was a compensated emancipation it was still done in the face of strenuous opposition from the slave owners.
And there wouldn't have been an entire race/class of uneducated and ill-prepared people simply turned out to fend for themselves.
And what makes you say that? Do you really think that slave owners would, at their own expense and in the face of a declining value of their asset, have footed the bill to educate and train their slaves for life after slavery? Slavery ending of it's own accord in an independent south wouldn't have left the freed slaves any better off.
Were not those colonies part of Britain? And did it not take an act of Parliament to end the British slave trade? I believe so.
And what makes you say that?
Read some of the stories of former slaves. They were free and they had no idea what they should do. Thousands trailed along behind the Union army because they thought they should (and the Union soliders hated them).
Do you really think that slave owners would, at their own expense and in the face of a declining value of their asset, have footed the bill to educate and train their slaves for life after slavery?
As a whole, no. But, some would have. Some broke the law by teaching slaves to read and write anyway.
Slavery ending of it's own accord in an independent south wouldn't have left the freed slaves any better off.
We'll never know if that's true or not. But they certainly wouldn't have been any worse off.