Editing Abolitionism (section)

===Overview===
[[James Oglethorpe]] was among the first to articulate the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] case against slavery, banning it in the [[Province of Georgia]] on humanitarian grounds, and arguing against it in Parliament. Soon after Oglethorpe's death in 1785, Sharp and More united with [[William Wilberforce]] and others in forming the [[Clapham Sect]].<ref>Wilson, Thomas, ''The Oglethorpe Plan'', 201–206.</ref>

The [[Somerset v Stewart|Somersett case]] in 1772, in which a fugitive slave was freed with the judgement that slavery did not exist under [[English common law]], helped launch the British movement to abolish slavery.<ref>Wise, Steven M., ''Though the Heavens May Fall: The Landmark Trial that Led to the End of Human Slavery'', Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press, 2005.</ref> Though anti-slavery sentiments were widespread by the late 18th century, many colonies and emerging nations continued to use [[slave labour]]: [[Dutch Empire|Dutch]], [[French colonial empire|French]], [[British Empire|British]], [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]], and [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] territories in the West Indies, South America, and the Southern United States. After the [[American Revolution]] established the United States, many Loyalists who fled the Northern United States immigrated to the British province of Quebec, bringing an English majority population as well as many slaves, leading the province to ban the institution in 1793 (see [[slavery in canada|Slavery in Canada]]). In the U.S., Northern states, [[An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery|beginning with Pennsylvania]] in 1780, passed legislation during the next two decades abolishing slavery, sometimes by [[Gradual emancipation (United States)|gradual emancipation]]. Vermont, which was excluded from the thirteen colonies, existed as an independent state from 1777 to 1791. Vermont abolished adult slavery in 1777. In other states, such as Virginia, similar declarations of rights were interpreted by the courts as not applicable to Africans and African Americans. During the following decades, the abolitionist movement grew in northern states, and Congress heavily regulated the expansion of Slave or Free States in new territories admitted to the union (see [[Missouri compromise]]).

In 1787, the [[Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade]] was formed in London. [[French Revolution|Revolutionary France]] abolished slavery throughout its empire through the [[Law of 4 February 1794]], but [[Napoleon]] [[Law of 20 May 1802|restored it in 1802]] as part of a program to ensure sovereignty over its colonies.  On March 16, 1792, Denmark became the first country to issue a decree to abolish their [[Danish slave trade|transatlantic slave trade]] from the start of 1803.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://aaregistry.org/story/denmark-abolishes-slavery/|title=Denmark Abolishes Slavery|website=African American Registry}}</ref> However, Denmark would not abolish slavery in the Danish West Indies until 1848.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/historical-themes/danish-colonies/the-danish-west-indies/the-abolition-of-slavery/|title=The Abolition of Slavery|website=National Museum of Denmark}}</ref> Haiti (then Saint-Domingue) formally [[History of Haiti|declared independence from France]] in 1804 and became the first nation in the [[Western Hemisphere]] to permanently eliminate slavery in the modern era, following the [[1804 Haitian revolution]].<ref name="The Washington Post">{{cite web |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/07/12/haiti-was-first-nation-permanently-ban-slavery/ |title=Haiti was the first nation to permanently ban slavery |publisher=Gaffield, Julia|access-date=15 July 2020}}</ref> The northern states in the U.S. all abolished slavery by 1804. The trade of slaves was made illegal throughout the British Empire by 1937, with Nigeria and Bahrain being the last British territories to abolish slavery.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Nwaubani |first=Adaobi Tricia |date=2018-07-15 |title=My Great-Grandfather, the Nigerian Slave-Trader |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/my-great-grandfather-the-nigerian-slave-trader |access-date=2025-02-03 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The abolition of the slave trade in southeastern Nigeria, 1885-1950 {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/256735611 |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=search.worldcat.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Northrup |first=David |date=September 2007 |title=A. E. Afigbo. The Abolition of the Slave Trade in Southeastern Nigeria. 1885-1950. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2006. Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora. xv + 210 pp. Maps. Appendixes. Bibliography. Index. $75.00. Cloth. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/abs/a-e-afigbo-the-abolition-of-the-slave-trade-in-southeastern-nigeria-18851950-rochester-university-of-rochester-press-2006-rochester-studies-in-african-history-and-the-diaspora-xv-210-pp-maps-appendixes-bibliography-index-7500-cloth/7279CB1095BDD89AD84EACAA5AAA42CC |journal=African Studies Review |language=en |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=228–229 |doi=10.1353/arw.2007.0116 |issn=0002-0206}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Miers |first=Suzanne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zZk9Y-HTQzcC&q=1926+Slavery+Convention |title=Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem |date=2003 |publisher=Rowman Altamira |isbn=978-0-7591-0340-5 |pages=265–67 |language=en}}</ref>