The importation of enslaved people from Africa to the United States was officially ended in 1808 by an act of Congress. That same year Great Britain also forbade the trade into its New World colonies. In the 1820s, British efforts to stop the trade even included boarding and seizing vessels of other countries. By 1838, the entire British Empire was free from chattel slavery, as were all of the Spanish-speaking Latin American countries, save Cuba. Brazil still had a large economy based on enslaving people, as did some of the French colonial islands. Brazil had signed treaties that closed the African trade but a thriving illegal one sprang up. Many of the ships Great Britain seized were based in U.S. harbors, with the profits going to American owners. The abolitionist movement in the U.S. fought against this with a number of tactics including articles such as this one. They hoped that by publicizing involvement of specific people in the trade they would be shamed into stopping. The trade, both legal and illegal, continued into the 1860s.
Greenfield Gazette and Courier. “The Slave Trade.” May 18, 1860. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/l02-113/. Accessed on October 16, 2024.
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