Treaties & documents · 1807 (Britain), 1808 (United States)
The abolition acts of 1807–08
The statutes ending the legal Atlantic slave trade — and the legal machinery that produced the Liberia project.
Biography
Britain's Slave Trade Act received assent in March 1807; the United States Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves took effect on 1 January 1808. Neither ended slavery, and neither ended the trade.
What they did create was a category — 'recaptured Africans' — and an American statutory obligation, in the Act of 3 March 1819, to receive and resettle them. That statute, and the $100,000 appropriated with it, is the mechanism by which the US government funded the Colonization Society's agents and the voyage of the Elizabeth.
Historical significance
The legal chain from abolition to Cape Mesurado runs through these acts; without them there is no United States role in 1822.
Timeline
- 25 Mar 1807British Slave Trade Act
- 1 Jan 1808US prohibition takes effect
- 3 Mar 1819US Act in Addition authorises resettlement of recaptives
- 6 Feb 1820The Elizabeth sails under that authority
Related entries
References
- Huberich, Charles Henry (1947). The Political and Legislative History of Liberia.
- Staudenraus, P. J. (1961). The African Colonization Movement, 1816–1865.
Suggested reading
- Staudenraus (1961).