THE SLAVE TRADE ACT MARCH 25 - 1807

 

THE SLAVE TRADE ACT MARCH 25 - 1807 

 

Murphy Browne © March 20-2021

On March 25, 1807, the British government abolished their trade in Africans from the African continent. The Slave Trade Act 1807, or An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, was an Act passed by Britain banning the slave trade in the British Empire. This “Act” did not abolish slavery, it prohibited the transportation of Africans from the African continent to other parts of the world. The abolition of slavery in the British Empire was 27 years later, on August 1, 1834. The Slave Trade Act 1807, made it illegal to engage in the slave trade throughout the British colonies, however, trafficking between the Caribbean islands continued. After March 25, 1807, it became illegal to carry “slaves” in British ships; from that date “all manner of dealing and reading in the purchase, sale, barter, or transfer of slaves or of persons intending to be sold, transferred, used, or dealt with as slaves, practiced or carried in, at, or from any part of the coast or countries of Africa shall be abolished, prohibited and declared to be unlawful.” The British then encouraged other European nations to abolish their slave trade. Britain had made a fortune in the slave trade by March 25, 1807 so could afford to adopt a self-righteous attitude to other countries still involved in the trade. According to White, British historian Martin Meredith, "In the decade between 1791 and 1800, British ships made about 1,340 voyages across the Atlantic, landing nearly 400,000 slaves. Between 1801 and 1807, they took a further 266,000. The slave trade remained one of Britain's most profitable businesses."  

Although the Act, “outlawed trans-Atlantic human trafficking,” British “entrepreneurs” continued enslaving Africans who were already in their possession; they were only restricted from importing any new ones from Africa. They could continue buying and selling enslaved Africans in/from any of the “colonies.” The Act did not have much effect on the British institution of slavery. Plantation owners were also able to maintain the volume of enslaved workers through the children born into slavery. Enslaved Africans in British colonies were bought and sold at will. 

 

Britain used its influence in pressuring other nations to end their slave trade after passing the 1807 Act. The United States adopted its “Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves” on January 1, 1808. Like the British, the American abolition of its Atlantic slave trade did not alter its internal trade in enslaved Africans. In 1810, Portugal agreed to restrict its trade through the Anglo-Portuguese treaty. In 1813, Sweden outlawed its slave trade through the Anglo-Swedish treaty. In 1814, France agreed with Britain that the slave trade was "repugnant to the principles of natural justice" and agreed to abolish the slave trade in five years by signing the Treaty of Paris. In 1814, through the Anglo-Dutch treaty the Dutch outlawed their slave trade. The 1817 Anglo-Spanish treaty called for Spain to abolish its trade by 1820. Under the 1817 treaty with Spain to abolish the slave trade, naval ships of both nations could seize any Spanish or British ships involved in the illegal trade in slaves, although many ships tried to evade the ban. 

 

The infamous “Amistad” debacle was an example of an attempt to evade the ban on importing Africans from the African continent after the Anglo-Spanish treaty was signed. In April 1839, several Africans were kidnapped and taken from Sierra Leone which was a British protectorate. After enduring a horrific journey and landing at Havana in the Spanish colony Cuba, the Africans were fraudulently classified as Cuban-born slaves (renamed with Spanish names) and sold at auction to Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montez, who planned to transport them to their plantations on another part of the island aboard the schooner “La Amistad.” 

 

The Africans on “La Amistad,” led by Sengbe Pieh, who had been renamed Joseph Cinque by the Spanish kidnappers, managed to free themselves and commandeer the slave ship. They tried to make their way back to Africa but ended up at Long Island, in the USA, where they were recaptured on August 26, 1839 by the crew of an American naval brig. Following a two-year legal battle in American courts where the Spanish government argued that America had no jurisdiction over Spanish subjects, the Africans were freed on March 9, 1841. The Supreme Court announced its decision based on the fact that Sengbe Pieh and his companions were "kidnapped Africans, who by the laws of Spain itself were entitled to their freedom." The ruling included a judge’s decision that the Africans were "born free" and had been kidnapped in violation of international law. 

 

In 2007 during the commemoration of the bicentenary of the abolition of the British Trans-Atlantic slave trade, it was not surprising that the British government attempted to make the year a celebration of White “abolitionists.” On March 27, 2007, in Westminster Abbey, British born, Pan-African activist, Toyin Agbetu challenged the British monarchy, church and government “at their public ritual of disrespect to the millions of African people lost during Maafa.” Agbetu was celebrated across the Pan-African world when he spoke out, in the spirit of freedom fighters like Nanny of the Maroons, Nana Yaa Asantewaa of the Ashanti, Bussa of Barbados and Kofi, Guyana’s National Hero who led the Berbice Revolution of 1763. During the year of commemoration, our community in Toronto, led by Dr. Afua Cooper and the members of the Committee to Commemorate and Memorialize the Abolition of the Slave Trade (CMAST,) recognized the role of the freedom fighters of Haiti in the British decision to end the slave trade and eventually slavery. 

Murphy Browne © March 20-2021