The importation of slaves into the United…

The importation of slaves into the United States is banned on January 1, 1808, as the 1806 Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves takes effect; African slaves will continue to be imported into Cuba, and until Cuba abolishes slavery in 1865, half a million slaves will arrive on the island.

The laws that ultimately end the Atlantic triangle trade come about as a result of the efforts of abolitionist religious groups such as the Society of Friends, known as Quakers, and Evangelicals led by William Wilberforce, whose efforts through the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade leads to the passage of the Slave Trade Act by the British Parliament in 1807.

This leads to increased calls for the same ban in America, supported by members of the U.S. Congress from both the North and the South as well as President Thomas Jefferson.

At the same time that the importation of slaves from Africa is being restricted or eliminated, the United States is undergoing a rapid expansion of cotton, tobacco, sugar cane and rice production in the Deep South and the West as a result of increased immigration, largely from Northern Europe.

Slaves are treated as a commodity by owners and traders alike, and are regarded as the crucial labor for the production of lucrative cash crops that feed the triangle trade.

The slaves are managed as assets in the same way as chattel; slaveholders pass laws regulating slavery and the slave trade designed to protect their financial interests; there is little protection for the slaves.

Separating slave families for the purposes of assigning workers to the task for which they are best physically suited is a common practice.

In addition to agriculture, slave labor is increasingly used in mining, shipbuilding and other industries.