The United States, another major power involved…
March 1807 CE
This legislation had been promoted by President Thomas Jefferson, who had called for its enactment in his 1806 State of the Union Address.
He has promoted the idea since the 1770s.
It reflects the force of the general trend toward abolishing the international slave trade, which Virginia followed by all the other states had prohibited or restricted since then.
South Carolina, however, had reopened its trade.
Congress first regulated against in the Slave Trade Act of 1794.
The 1807 Act ends the legality of trade with the U.S.
However, it is not always well enforced and slaves continue to be smuggled in limited numbers.
All the northern states had ended slavery by 1804, but ownership remains legal in all the Southern states.
The 1807 law does not change that—it just makes importation from abroad a crime.
The domestic slave trade within the U.S. is unaffected by the 1807 law.
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