The United States Congress banned all participation in the African slave trade 200 years ago this day (January 1) in 1808. Today is the bicentennial of that historic ban.
Happy New Year! And Happy Slave Trade Ban Day. What? You didn't know about that? Well, it's true. Two hundred years ago today, the ban on America's participation in the African slave trade took effect.
North America became involved in the dreaded practice in 1619, when the first African slave ships arrived in Jamestown. The slave trade continued and grew over the decades, until it was firmly entrenched in North America.
The rhetoric of the American Revolution brought the slave trade (along with the institution of slavery itself) into sharp focus. And many of America's Founders began to openly speak against slavery and the slave trade in particular. Some of these Founders were (some might say "ironically") slave owners - such as Thomas Jefferson and George Mason.
The slave trade proved to be an acrimonious issue at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, with the Deep South (particularly states like South Carolina and Georgia) refusing to give up their participation in the traffic of human flesh from Africa. A compromise was reached, guaranteeing the slave trade for 20 years from the adoption of the Constitution. That meant 1808.
By 1807, every state, except South Carolina, had banned the slave trade. Congress outlawed it in 1807, scheduling the ban to take effect on January 1, 1808.
