This project examines the abolition of slavery in the Ottoman Empire within the broader context of global abolitionism in the nineteenth century. Much of this historiography has framed British anti-slavery efforts there as a small chapter in a long progression of humanitarian successes that abolished the global slave trade throughout the long nineteenth century. I argue that during this period, local circumstances heavily shaped British antislavery policy and understandings of slavery. These contingencies, as a result, expose the paradoxes and challenges within the principles of Victorian British antislavery ideology in a global conception. I do this by exploring the multiple contexts of British perceptions of Ottoman slavery and freedom, focusing on geopolitical concerns and changing imperial goals; the development of theories on scientific race, civilization, and human rights; and Victorian attitudes towards gender, sex, and structures of kinship.