Editing Atlantic slave trade (section)

==End of the Atlantic slave trade==
{{Main|Abolitionism}}
{{See also|Blockade of Africa}}
[[File:SisterSlave.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|right|"Am I not a woman and a sister?" antislavery medallion from the late 18th century]]

Abolitionists of African, European, and American descent campaigned against the Atlantic slave trade.<ref>{{cite web |title=How did the Abolition Acts of 1807 and 1833 affect the slave trade? |url=https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/slavery/ |website=The National Archives / United Kingdom |access-date=14 January 2025}}</ref> Black abolitionists took a more radical approach to abolition than their white counterparts, encouraging strikes, slave rebellions aboard slave ships and on plantations, circulating petitions, telling personal narratives about the horrors of slavery, and advocating for freedom and equal rights for Black people in the [[African diaspora]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Black Abolition |url=https://www.searchablemuseum.com/black-abolition |website=National Museum of African American History and Culture |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=15 January 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=African Abolitionism: The Rise and Transformations of Anti-Slavery in Africa |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/history/research/african-abolitionism-rise-and-transformations-anti-slavery-africa |website=University College London |date=23 February 2021 |publisher=UCL |access-date=15 January 2025}}</ref>

===African abolitionists===
{{See also|Sons of Africa|Ottobah Cugoano}}
According to [[Sociology|sociologist]] José Lingna Nafafé, the first movement against slavery and the Atlantic slave trade started in the 17th century among Africans in the Portuguese empire. [[Lourenço da Silva de Mendouça]], a royal from [[Angola]]'s [[Kingdom of Ndongo|Ndongo Kingdom]], campaigned against the slave trade while traveling through Italy, Spain, and the Vatican in Rome. Mendonça petitioned the Vatican, Portugal, Italy, and Spain in 1684 to end the enslavement of Africans, presenting his case to [[Pope Innocent XI]], and demanded the abolition for Africans, New Christians (Jews converted to Christianity) and American Indians. This was a century before  abolitionists [[William Wilberforce]] and Thomas Buxton emerged.<ref name="theconversation.com">{{cite news |title=Angolan prince started campaign to end Atlantic slave trade long before Europeans did – new book |url=https://theconversation.com/angolan-prince-started-campaign-to-end-atlantic-slave-trade-long-before-europeans-did-new-book-242839 |access-date=14 January 2025 |agency=The Conversation |date=2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Nafafe |first1=Jose Lingna |title=Lourenço da Silva Mendonça and the Black Atlantic Abolitionist Movement in the Seventeenth Century |series=Cambridge Studies on the African Diaspora |date=2022 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-83823-8 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/lourenco-da-silva-mendonca-and-the-black-atlantic-abolitionist-movement-in-the-seventeenth-century/lourenco-da-silva-mendonca-and-the-black-atlantic-abolitionist-movement-in-the-seventeenth-century/8D5F0B9097B131DD66ED53FB9C43F395}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Nafafe |first1=Joseph Lingna |title=Lourenço Da Silva Mendonça and the Black Atlantic Abolitionist Movement in the Seventeenth Century |date=2022 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781108976534 |pages=1–10, 11–20, 21–30 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Uv_EAAAQBAJ}}</ref>

[[File:Olaudah Equiano - Project Gutenberg eText 15399 (cropped).png|thumb|left|[[Olaudah Equiano]] was a member of the '[[Sons of Africa]]' an abolitionist group of 12 African men that campaigned against slavery and the slave trade.<ref>{{cite web |title=Olaudah Equiano (c.1745 - 1797) |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/equiano_olaudah.shtml |website=BBC History |access-date=15 January 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Brain |first1=Jessica |title=The Sons of Africa |url=https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Sons-Of-Africa/ |website=Historic UK |access-date=15 January 2025}}</ref>]]

Slavery's supporters cited Africans enslaving each other and claimed this as evidence of African's inferior nature. A common narrative of the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade portrays European Christians as morally superior and saviors of Africans from enslavement. In addition, Christian narratives also justified the slave trade, and the colonialism that followed British abolition.<ref name="theconversation.com"/>

Historian and author Benedetta Rossi states that some African societies implemented laws that prohibited the slave trade and slavery before European contact. Rossi writes: "...the actions of African critics of slavery were informed by cultural representations and normative traditions that varied from society to society. Second, at the individual level, what actors thought and did about slavery and abolition depended on their position in society: wealthy slaveowners, political rulers, religious authorities, and enslaved persons had different interests and tactics, which they developed in the political and economic circum stances of their times." African rulers who passed anti-slavery laws only abolished certain forms of slavery. African nations who opposed the slave trade did so for various reasons including cultural, religious, political, and economic motivations.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rossi |first1=Benedetta |title=The Abolition of Slavery in Africa's Legal Histories |journal=Law and History Review |date=2024 |volume=42 |pages=1–5, 9–12 |doi=10.1017/S0738248023000585 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/47A74EA1672DB9EF11881137DB43796A/S0738248023000585a.pdf/abolition_of_slavery_in_africas_legal_histories.pdf |access-date=15 January 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Greene |first1=Sandra |title=Minority Voices: Abolitionism in West Africa |journal=Slavery & Abolition |date=2015 |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=642–661 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0144039X.2015.1008213 |access-date=21 January 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=How West African Religions Adapted to the TA Slave Trade The Adaptations Made by Various West African Religions to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade |url=https://journeys.dartmouth.edu/marcanovicoff22/how-west-african-religions-adapted-to-the-ta-slave-trade/ |website=Dartmouth College |access-date=21 January 2025}}</ref>

In addition, African resistance to enslavement on slave ships and various [[slave rebellion|rebellions]] in the Americas sparked debates about abolishing the slave trade and slavery.<ref>{{cite web |title=How did the Abolition Acts of 1807 and 1833 affect the slave trade? |url=https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/slavery/ |website=The National Archives / United Kingdom |access-date=14 January 2025}}</ref> Abolitionist [[Olaudah Equiano]] was a former slave who was kidnapped from present day [[Nigeria]] and wrote an autobiography about his life published in 1789 that discussed the horrors of slavery, and gave lectures in Britain advocating abolition of the Atlantic slave trade and [[Slavery|chattel slavery]]. In 1788, Equiano participated in the House of Commons debates about slavery and abolition of the slave trade, wrote letters to the government, and corresponded with parliamentarians.<ref>{{cite web |title=Olaudah Equiano |url=https://artsandculture.google.com/story/olaudah-equiano-black-cultural-archives/HwWh3RaNNXTfIg?hl=en |website=Black Cultural Archives |publisher=Google Arts and Culture |access-date=15 January 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Transatlantic Slave Trade |url=https://heritagecollections.parliament.uk/stories/the-transatlantic-slave-trade/ |website=UK Parliament |access-date=21 January 2025}}</ref>

Author and historian Bronwen Everill writes the British were not the first to abolish the slave trade and African leaders in Sierra Leone had a role in ending the transatlantic slave trade. Formerly enslaved [[Black British people|Black Britons]] founded [[Sierra Leone]] in West Africa in 1787, on land inhabited by the [[Temne people]]. Over the years, [[Black Loyalist]]s from North America moved to the colony. The Temne, [[Susu people|Susu]], and [[Freedman|freedmen]] opposed the slave trade. The [[Sierra Leone Company]] in London managed the colony, and Africans and freedmen wanted to establish trade with the Sierre Leone Company without selling people. Sierra Leone's story reveals the British navy's reliance on African entities opposing the slave trade to achieve abolition. Britain took control of the Sierra Leone colony from the Sierra Leone Company, establishing a court and naval patrol to combat the slave trade by seizing ships.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Everill |first1=Bronwen |title=African leaders in Sierra Leone played a key role in ending the transatlantic slave trade |url=https://theconversation.com/african-leaders-in-sierra-leone-played-a-key-role-in-ending-the-transatlantic-slave-trade-207382 |access-date=21 January 2025 |agency=The Conversation |date=2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Bilow |first1=Ali |title=Founding of Sierra Leone, 1787 |url=https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/founding-sierra-leone/ |website=BlackPast |access-date=21 January 2025}}</ref>

===American and European abolitionists===
{{Events leading to US Civil War}}
{{See also|Society of the Friends of the Blacks}}
[[File:Wilberforce john rising.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[William Wilberforce]] (1759–1833), politician and philanthropist who was a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade]]
In Britain, America, Portugal, and in parts of Europe, opposition developed against the slave trade. [[David Brion Davis]] says that abolitionists assumed "that an end to slave imports would lead automatically to the amelioration and gradual abolition of slavery".<ref>David Brion Davis, ''The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution: 1770–1823'' (1975), p. 129.</ref> In Britain and America, opposition to the trade was led by members of the [[Religious Society of Friends]] (Quakers), [[Thomas Clarkson]] and establishment Evangelicals such as [[William Wilberforce]] in Parliament. Many people joined the movement and they began to protest against the trade, but they were opposed by the owners of the colonial holdings.<ref>Library of Society of Friends Subject Guide: Abolition of the Slave Trade.</ref> Following [[Lord Mansfield]]'s decision in 1772, many abolitionists and slave-holders believed that slaves became free upon entering the British isles.{{sfn|Lovejoy|2000|p=290}} However, in reality occasional instances of slavery continued in Britain right up to abolition in the 1830s. The Mansfield ruling on ''[[Somerset v Stewart]]'' only decreed that a slave could not be transported out of England against his will.{{sfn|Schama|2006|p=61}}

Under the leadership of [[Thomas Jefferson]], the new [[U.S. state]] of [[Virginia]] in 1778 became the first slave-owning state and one of the first jurisdictions anywhere to stop the importation of new slaves for sale; it made it a crime for traders to bring in slaves from out of state or from overseas for sale; migrants from within the United States were allowed to bring their own slaves. The new law freed all slaves brought in illegally after its passage and imposed heavy fines on violators.<ref>John E. Selby and Don Higginbotham, ''The Revolution in Virginia, 1775–1783'' (2007), p. 158.</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Erik S. |last=Root |title=All Honor to Jefferson?: The Virginia Slavery Debates and the Positive Good Thesis |date=2008 |page=19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-02-02-0019 |title=Founders Online: Bill to Prevent the Importation of Slaves, &c., [16 June 1777] |website=founders.archives.gov |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231019014813/https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-02-02-0019 |archive-date=19 October 2023}}</ref> All the other states in the United States followed suit, although [[South Carolina]] reopened its slave trade in 1803.<ref>{{cite book |first=Lacy K. |last=Ford |title=Deliver Us from Evil: The Slavery Question in the Old South |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xEC9K7quBoEC&pg=PA105 |year=2009 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=104–107 |isbn=978-0-19-975108-2}}</ref>

Denmark, which had been active in the slave trade, was the first country to ban the trade through legislation in 1792, which took effect in 1803.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.virgin-islands-history.org/en/danish-prohibition-on-transatlantic-slave-trade-in-1792/ |title=Danish decision to abolish transatlantic slave trade in 1792 |access-date=21 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160921070732/http://www.virgin-islands-history.org/en/danish-prohibition-on-transatlantic-slave-trade-in-1792/ |archive-date=21 September 2016}}</ref> Britain banned the slave trade in 1807, imposing stiff fines for any slave found aboard a British ship (''see [[Slave Trade Act 1807]]''). The [[Royal Navy]] moved to stop other nations from continuing the slave trade and declared that slaving was equal to piracy and was punishable by death. The [[United States Congress]] passed the [[Slave Trade Act of 1794]], which prohibited the building or outfitting of ships in the U.S. for use in the slave trade. The U.S. Constitution (Article I, section 9, clause 1) barred a federal prohibition on importing slaves for 20 years; at that time the [[Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves]] prohibited imports on the first day the Constitution permitted: January 1, 1808. It was generally thought that the transatlantic slave trade ended in 1867, but evidence was later found of voyages until 1873.<ref name=alberge>{{cite news |last=Alberge |first=Dalya |title=Transatlantic slavery continued for years after 1867, historian finds |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=4 January 2024 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/04/transatlantic-slavery-continued-for-years-after-1867-historian-finds |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240611231817/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/04/transatlantic-slavery-continued-for-years-after-1867-historian-finds |archive-date=11 June 2024}}</ref>

===British abolitionism===
{{Main|Abolitionism in the United Kingdom}}
{{See also|Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade}}
[[Quakers]] began to campaign against the [[British Empire]]'s slave trade in the 1780s, and from 1789 [[William Wilberforce]] was a driving force in the British Parliament in the fight against the trade. The abolitionists argued that the trade was not necessary for the economic success of sugar in the British West Indian colonies. This argument was accepted by wavering politicians, who did not want to destroy the valuable and important sugar colonies of the British Caribbean. Parliament was also concerned about the success of the [[Haitian Revolution]], and they believed they had to abolish the trade to prevent a similar conflagration from occurring in a British Caribbean colony.<ref>Christer Petley, ''White Fury: A Jamaican Slaveholder and the Age of Revolution'' (Oxford: [[Oxford University Press]], 2018), pp. 200–209.</ref>

On 22 February 1807, the House of Commons passed a motion by 283 votes to 16 to abolish the Atlantic slave trade. Hence, the slave trade was abolished, but not the still-economically viable institution of slavery itself, which provided Britain's most lucrative import at the time, sugar. Abolitionists did not move against sugar and slavery itself until after the sugar industry went into terminal decline after 1823.{{sfn|Williams|2021|pp=105–106, 120–122}}

The United States passed its own [[Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves]] the next week (March 2, 1807), although probably without mutual consultation. The act only took effect on the first day of 1808; since a compromise clause in the [[Article One of the United States Constitution#Clause 1: Slave trade|US Constitution (Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1)]] prohibited federal, although not state, restrictions on the slave trade before 1808. The United States did not, however, abolish its [[Slavery in the United States#Internal slave trade|internal slave trade]], which became the dominant mode of US slave trading until the 1860s.<ref>{{cite book |first=Marcyliena H. |last=Morgan |year=2002 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mhJcsiydNe8C&pg=PA20 |title=Language, Discourse and Power in African American Culture |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=20 |isbn=978-0-521-00149-6}}</ref> In 1805 the British Order-in-Council had restricted the importation of slaves into colonies that had been captured from France and the Netherlands.{{sfn|Lovejoy|2000|p=290}} Britain continued to press other nations to end its trade; in 1810 an Anglo-Portuguese treaty was signed whereby Portugal agreed to restrict its trade into its colonies; an [[Treaty of Stockholm (1813)|1813 Anglo-Swedish treaty]] whereby Sweden outlawed its [[Swedish slave trade|slave trade]]; the [[Treaty of Paris (1814)|Treaty of Paris 1814]] where France agreed with Britain that the trade is "repugnant to the principles of natural justice" and agreed to abolish the slave trade in five years; the [[Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814|1814 Anglo-Dutch treaty]] where the Dutch outlawed its slave trade.{{sfn|Lovejoy|2000|p=290}}

===Castlereagh and Palmerston's diplomacy===
[[File:Abolition of Slavery The Glorious 1st of August 1838.jpg|thumb|Abolition of Slavery The Glorious 1st of August 1838]]

Abolitionist opinion in Britain was strong enough in 1807 to abolish the slave trade in all [[British possessions]], although slavery itself persisted in the colonies until 1833.<ref>Drescher, Seymour, "Whose abolition? Popular pressure and the ending of the British slave trade." ''Past & Present'' 143 (1994): 136–166. {{JSTOR|651164}}.</ref> Abolitionists after 1807 focused on international agreements to abolish the slave trade. Foreign Minister [[Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh|Castlereagh]] switched his position and became a strong supporter of the movement. Britain arranged treaties with Portugal, Sweden and Denmark in the period between 1810 and 1814, whereby they agreed to end or restrict their trading. These were preliminary to the Congress of Vienna negotiations that Castlereagh dominated and which resulted in a general declaration condemning the slave trade.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Jerome |last=Reich |title=The Slave Trade at the Congress of Vienna{{snd}}A Study in English Public Opinion |journal=Journal of Negro History |volume=53 |number=2 |date=1968 |pages=129–143 |doi=10.2307/2716488 |jstor=2716488}}</ref>

The problem was that the treaties and declarations were hard to enforce, given the very high profits available to private interests. As Foreign Minister, Castlereagh cooperated with senior officials to use the Royal Navy to detect and capture slave ships. He used diplomacy to make search-and-seize agreements with all the governments whose ships were trading. There was serious friction with the United States, where the southern slave interest was politically powerful. Washington recoiled at British policing of the high seas. Spain, France and Portugal also relied on the international slave trade to supply their colonial plantations.

As more and more diplomatic arrangements were made by Castlereagh, the owners of slave ships started flying false flags of nations that had not agreed, especially the United States. It was illegal under American law for American ships to engage in the slave trade, but the idea of Britain enforcing American laws was unacceptable to Washington. [[Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston|Lord Palmerston]] and other British foreign ministers continued the Castlereagh policies. Eventually, in 1842 in 1845, an arrangement was reached between London and Washington. With the arrival of a staunchly anti-slavery government in Washington in 1861, the Atlantic slave trade was doomed. In the long run, Castlereagh's strategy on how to stifle the slave trade proved successful.<ref>{{cite journal |first=James C. |last=Duram |title=A Study of Frustration: Britain, the USA, and the African Slave Trade, 1815–1870 |journal=[[Social Science (journal)|Social Science]] |date=1965 |volume=40 |issue=4 |pages=220–225 |jstor=41885111}}</ref>

Prime Minister Palmerston detested slavery, and in [[Colonial Nigeria|Nigeria]] in 1851 he took advantage of divisions in native politics, the presence of Christian missionaries, and the maneuvers of British consul [[John Beecroft]] to encourage the overthrow of King Kosoko. The new King Akitoye was a docile non-slave-trading puppet.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Giles D. |last=Short |title=Blood and Treasure: The reduction of Lagos, 1851 |journal=ANU Historical Journal |date=1977 |volume=13 |pages=11–19 |issn=0001-2068}}</ref>

===British Royal Navy===
The Royal Navy's [[West Africa Squadron]], established in 1808, grew by 1850 to a force of some 25 vessels, which were tasked with combating slavery along the African coast.<ref>Huw Lewis-Jones, [https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/royal_navy_article_02.shtml "The Royal Navy and the Battle to End Slavery"], BBC, 17 February 2011.</ref> Between 1807 and 1860, the Royal Navy's Squadron seized approximately 1,600 ships involved in the slave trade and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard these vessels.<ref>Jo Loosemore, [https://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/content/articles/2007/03/20/abolition_navy_feature.shtml "Sailing against slavery"], [[BBC]], 24 September 2014.</ref> Several hundred slaves a year were transported by the navy to the British colony of [[Sierra Leone]], where they were made to serve as "apprentices" in the colonial economy until the [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833]].<ref>{{cite news |first=Caroline |last=Davies |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/aug/02/wilberforce-condoned-slavery-files-claim |title=William Wilberforce 'condoned slavery', Colonial Office papers reveal...Rescued slaves forced into unpaid 'apprenticeships' |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=2 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240306113624/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/aug/02/wilberforce-condoned-slavery-files-claim |archive-date=6 March 2024}}</ref>
[[File:HMS Black Joke (1827).jpg|thumb|Capture of slave ship {{lang|es|El Almirante}} by the British Royal Navy in the 1800s. {{HMS|Black Joke|1827|6}} freed 466 slaves.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://publishing.yudu.com/An8w/navynewsjune2007/resources/36.htm |title=Navy News |date=June 2007 |access-date=9 February 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240315050053/http://publishing.yudu.com/An8w/navynewsjune2007/resources/36.htm |archive-date=15 March 2024}}</ref>]]

===Last slave ship to the United States===
{{See also|Post-1808 importation of slaves to the United States}}

Even though it was prohibited, in response to the North's reluctance or refusal to enforce the [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850]], the Atlantic slave trade was "re-open[ed] ... by way of retaliation".<ref name=bugle>{{cite news |title=How to Oppose Slavery with Effect |newspaper=[[Anti-Slavery Bugle]] ([[Lisbon, Ohio]]) |date=29 October 1859 |page=1 |via=[[newspapers.com]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63975588/chattel-slavery-is-the-root-of-the/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240727151420/https://www.newspapers.com/article/anti-slavery-bugle-chattel-slavery-is-th/63975588/ |archive-date=27 July 2024}}</ref> In 1859, "the trade in slaves from Africa to the Southern coast of the United States is now carried on in defiance of Federal law and of the Federal Government."<ref name=bugle/>

The last ''known'' slave ship to land on U.S. soil was the [[Clotilda (slave ship)|''Clotilda'']], which in 1859 illegally smuggled a number of Africans into the town of [[Mobile, Alabama]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/question/july05/ |title=Cudjo Lewis: Last African Slave in the U.S.? |access-date=12 October 2007 |archive-date=25 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525130501/http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/question/july05/ |website=Jim Crow Museum |publisher=[[Ferris State University]]}}</ref> The Africans on board were sold as slaves; however, slavery in the U.S. was [[abolitionism in the United States|abolished]] five years later following the end of the [[American Civil War]] in 1865. [[Cudjoe Lewis]], who died in 1935, was long believed to be the last survivor of ''Clotilda'' and the last surviving slave brought from Africa to the United States,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/dreamsofafricain0000diou |title=Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America |isbn=978-0-19-531104-4 |first=Sylvianne |last=Diouf |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2007 |url-access=registration}}</ref> but recent research has found that two other survivors from ''Clotilda'' outlived him, [[Redoshi]] (who died in 1937) and [[Matilda McCrear]] (who died in 1940).<ref name="Durkin-2019">{{cite journal |last=Durkin |first=Hannah |s2cid=150975893 |title=Finding last middle passage survivor Sally 'Redoshi' Smith on the page and screen |journal=Slavery & Abolition |date=2019 |volume=40 |issue=4 |pages=631–658 u|doi=10.1080/0144039X.2019.1596397}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Durkin |first=Hannah |date=19 March 2020 |title=Uncovering The Hidden Lives of Last Clotilda Survivor Matilda McCrear and Her Family |journal=Slavery & Abolition |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=431–457 |doi=10.1080/0144039X.2020.1741833 |s2cid=216497607 |issn=0144-039X}}</ref>

However, according to Senator [[Stephen Douglas]], Lincoln's opponent in the [[Lincoln–Douglas debates]]:

{{blockquote|In regard to the slave trade, Mr. Douglas stated that there was not the shadow of doubt but that it had been carried on quite extensively for a long time back, and that there had been more slaves imported into the Southern States during the last year [1858] than had ever been imported before in any one year, even when the slave trade was legal. It was his confident belief that over 15,000 slaves had been brought into this country during the past year. He had seen, with his own eyes, three hundred of these recently-imported, miserable beings, in a slave-pen in [[Vicksburg, Mississippi]], and also large numbers at [[Memphis, Tennessee]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Mr. Douglas' position |newspaper=[[Richmond Enquirer]] |location=[[Richmond, Virginia]] |date=30 August 1859 |page=4 |via=[[newspapers.com]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/93416794/stephen-douglas-slavery-presidential/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240728110322/https://www.newspapers.com/article/richmond-enquirer-stephen-douglas-slave/93416794/ |archive-date=28 July 2024}}</ref>}}

[[File:Union and Liberty! Union and Slavery!.jpg|thumb|The image contrasts two scenes: [[Abraham Lincoln]] advocating equality with a worker, while [[George B. McClellan|McClellan]] shakes hands with Jefferson Davis, representing the Southern slave system.]]

Abraham Lincoln faced significant constitutional challenges in his fight to abolish slavery, as the U.S. Constitution had provided protections for slavery. Despite these challenges, Lincoln's leadership and the creation of a strong federal government allowed for the eventual abolition of slavery through the [[Emancipation Proclamation]] and the passage of the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|13th Amendment]].<ref>Eric Foner, "Lincoln's Evolving Thoughts On Slavery, And Freedom," National Public Radio, October 11, 2010, https://www.npr.org/2010/10/11/130489804/lincolns-evolving-thoughts-on-slavery-and-freedom. Accessed September 19, 2024.</ref>

===Brazil ends the Atlantic slave trade===
The last country to ban the Atlantic slave trade was Brazil; a first law was approved in 1831, however it was only enforced in 1850 through the new [[Eusébio de Queirós Law]]. Despite the prohibition, it took another three years for the trade to effectively end. Between the first law in 1831 and the effective ban of transatlantic trade in 1850, an estimated 500,000 Africans were enslaved and illegally trafficked to Brazil,<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/noticias/2015/11/151120_brasil_escravidao_reparacoes_fd |title=O polêmico debate sobre reparações pela escravidão no Brasil |trans-title=The controversial debate on reparations for slavery in Brazil |access-date=2 December 2023 |work=[[BBC News Brasil]] |first=Fernando |last=Duarte |date=20 November 2015 |language=pt |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231203020441/https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/noticias/2015/11/151120_brasil_escravidao_reparacoes_fd |archive-date=3 December 2023}}</ref> and until 1856, the year of the last recorded seizure of a slave ship by the Brazilian authorities, around 38,000 Africans still entered the country as slaves.<ref>{{Cite news |title=É hora de falar sobre escravidão mercantil e moderna |trans-title=It's time to talk about commercial and modern slavery |url=https://www.nexojornal.com.br/colunistas/2018/%C3%89-hora-de-falar-sobre-escravid%C3%A3o-mercantil-e-moderna |publisher=Nexo Jornal |language=pt-BR |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231203020440/https://www.nexojornal.com.br/colunistas/2018/%C3%89-hora-de-falar-sobre-escravid%C3%A3o-mercantil-e-moderna |archive-date=3 December 2023}}</ref>

Historians João José Reis, Sidney Chalhoub, Robert W. Slenes and Flávio dos Santos Gomes proposed that another reason for the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade to Brazil was the [[Malê revolt|Malê Revolt]] in 1835. On January 25, 1835, an estimated 600 free and enslaved Africans armed with guns ran through the streets of Salvador murdering whites and slaveholders. Abolitionists argued that if the slave trade and slavery continued, slave resistance movements would increase, resulting in more deaths. Seventy three percent of the Africans in the Malê revolt were Yoruba men who converted to Islam; some white Brazilians believed they had a spirit of resistance against enslavement.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Graden |first1=Dale |title=Slave resistance and the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade to Brazil in 1850 |journal=História Unisinos |date=2010 |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=283–284 |doi=10.4013/htu.2010.143.05 |url=https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/5798/579866831005.pdf |access-date=7 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240715210720/https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/5798/579866831005.pdf |archive-date=15 July 2024}}</ref>

===Economic motivation to end the slave trade===
[[File:Haitian Revolution.jpg|thumb|Haitian Revolution]]

The historian Walter Rodney contends that it was a decline in the profitability of the triangular trades that made it possible for certain basic human sentiments to be asserted at the decision-making level in a number of European countries—Britain being the most crucial because it was the greatest carrier of African captives across the Atlantic. Rodney states that changes in productivity, technology, and patterns of exchange in Europe and the Americas informed the decision by the British to end their participation in the trade in 1807.<ref name="WalterRodney" />

Nevertheless, [[Michael Hardt]] and [[Antonio Negri]]<ref>Hardt, M. and A. Negri (2000), ''Empire'', Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 114–128.</ref> argue that it was neither a strictly economic nor a moral matter. First, because slavery was (in practice) still beneficial to capitalism, providing not only an influx of capital but also disciplining hardship into workers (a form of "apprenticeship" to the capitalist industrial plant). The more "recent" argument of a "moral shift" (the basis of the previous lines of this article) is described by Hardt and Negri as an "ideological" apparatus in order to eliminate the sentiment of guilt in western society. Although moral arguments did play a secondary role, they usually had major resonance when used as a strategy to undercut competitors' profits. This argument holds that Eurocentric history has been blind to the most important element in this fight for emancipation, precisely, the constant revolt and the antagonism of slaves' revolts. The most important of those being the [[Haitian Revolution]].

The shock of this 1804 revolution introduced an essential political argument into the end of the slave trade as slaveholders in North America feared a similar situation could happen in the United States, where enslaved people in the Southern states might free themselves through an armed resistance movement and free all enslaved people. The success of enslaved and free blacks in Haiti in freeing themselves through revolt invoked fear among many whites in North America. [[St. George Tucker]], a Virginian jurist, said this about the Haitian Revolution: "enough to make one shudder in fear of similar calamities in this country". Some white Americans and whites in the Caribbean suggested ending the slave trade and slavery to prevent an uprising like the one in Haiti.<ref>{{cite web |title=Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the U. S. |url=https://www.brown.edu/Facilities/John_Carter_Brown_Library/exhibitions/haitian/pages/part8.html |website=[[John Carter Brown Library]] |publisher=[[Brown University]] |access-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240518132659/https://www.brown.edu/Facilities/John_Carter_Brown_Library/exhibitions/haitian/pages/part8.html |archive-date=18 May 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The United States and the Haitian Revolution, 1791–1804 |url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1784-1800/haitian-rev |website=[[Office of the Historian]] |publisher=[[United States Department of State|Department of State]] |access-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240710022605/https://history.state.gov/milestones/1784-1800/haitian-rev |archive-date=10 July 2024}}</ref> A Jamaican [[Planter class|planter]], [[Bryan Edwards (politician)|Bryan Edwards]], observed the Haitian revolution and argued that the enslaved people who revolted were newly imported slaves from Africa. Edwards and other planters believed the [[Slave rebellion|slave revolts]] in the Caribbean were instigated by these new slaves, and some abolitionists suggested ending the slave trade to prevent further slave insurrections.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bromley |first1=Jason |title=Resistance and the Haitian Revolution |url=https://scholar.library.miami.edu/slaves/san_domingo_revolution/individual_essay/jason.html |website=Archives and Special Collections of Richter Library |publisher=University of Miami Library |access-date=17 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605204234/http://scholar.library.miami.edu/slaves/san_domingo_revolution/individual_essay/jason.html |archive-date=5 June 2024}}</ref> In Charleston, South Carolina, in 1822, [[Denmark Vesey]] and [[Gullah Jack]] planned a slave insurrection inspired by the Haitian Revolution.<ref>{{cite web |title=Denmark Vesey |url=https://www.nps.gov/people/denmark-vesey.htm |website=[[National Park Service]] |access-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240718070434/https://www.nps.gov/people/denmark-vesey.htm |archive-date=18 July 2024}}</ref>

The Haitian Revolution affected France's colonial economy. Saint Domingue (Haiti) was France's wealthiest colony and the world's top producer of sugar and coffee; it was also a global leader in cacao and indigo. Enslaved labor made Saint Domingue the wealthiest colony in the world and furnished two-thirds of France's overseas trade—because of Saint Domingue's wealth it was nicknamed "''Pearl of the Antilles.''" After free and enslaved people gained their independence from France, France and French slaveholders wanted financial compensation from Haiti in the amount of 150 million francs to compensate for their lost wealth, calling it an "Independence Debt" because France had lost its wealthiest colony when Haiti gained independence.<ref>{{cite web |last1=DelGrande |first1=Joe |title=France's Overdue Debt to Haiti |url=https://www.nyujilp.org/frances-overdue-debt-to-haiti/ |website=Journal of International Law and Politics |date=27 January 2022 |publisher=[[New York University]] |access-date=3 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240503153005/https://www.nyujilp.org/frances-overdue-debt-to-haiti/ |archive-date=3 May 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Economy |url=https://www.brown.edu/Facilities/John_Carter_Brown_Library/exhibitions/remember_haiti/economy.php |website=[[John Carter Brown Library]] |publisher=[[Brown University]] |access-date=3 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240720165859/https://www.brown.edu/Facilities/John_Carter_Brown_Library/exhibitions/remember_haiti/economy.php |archive-date=20 July 2024}}</ref> 

Haitians defeated the French, British, and Spanish during the revolution. Prior to the revolution, the United States was a major trade partner with Saint Domingue. After the revolution, the [[United States and the Haitian Revolution|United States]] refused to recognize Haiti as an independent Black nation.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Crawford-Roberts |first1=Ann |title=A History of United States Policy Towards Haiti |url=https://library.brown.edu/create/modernlatinamerica/chapters/chapter-14-the-united-states-and-latin-america/moments-in-u-s-latin-american-relations/a-history-of-united-states-policy-towards-haiti/ |website=Brown University Library |publisher=[[Brown University]] |access-date=3 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709035552/https://library.brown.edu/create/modernlatinamerica/chapters/chapter-14-the-united-states-and-latin-america/moments-in-u-s-latin-american-relations/a-history-of-united-states-policy-towards-haiti/ |archive-date=9 July 2024}}</ref> Haiti was no longer the main exporter of sugar after the revolution, Cuba became the main supplier of sugar to foreign nations, and Louisiana became a center of sugar production in the United States. Slave revolts affected the economy of the slave trade as slaveholders lost property in enslaved people through death, running away, and a decrease in the production of cash crops resulting in a shift in trade to other nations.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Topik |first1=Steven |title=A Global History of Trade and Conflict since 1500 |chapter=An Explosion of Violence: How the Haitian Revolution Rearranged the Trade Patterns of the Western Hemisphere |date=2013 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |isbn=9781349459988 |pages=62–86 |doi=10.1057/9781137326836_4 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137326836_4}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Hancock |first1=James |title=Sugar & the Rise of the Plantation System |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1784/sugar--the-rise-of-the-plantation-system/#:~:text=After%20the%20Haitian%20revolution%2C%20many,Louisiana%2C%20where%20slavery%20still%20existed. |website=World History Encyclopedia |access-date=17 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240705062733/https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1784/sugar--the-rise-of-the-plantation-system/ |archive-date=5 July 2024}}</ref>

However, both [[James Stephen (British politician)|James Stephen]] and [[Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux]], wrote that the slave trade could be abolished for the benefit of the British colonies, and the latter's pamphlet was often used in parliamentary debates in favour of abolition. [[William Pitt the Younger]] argued on the basis of these writings that the British colonies would be better off, in their economic position as well as in their security, if the trade was abolished. Consequently, according to historian Christer Petley, abolitionists argued, and even some absentee plantation owners accepted, that the trade could be abolished "without substantial damage to the plantation economy". [[William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville]] argued that "the slave population of the colonies could be maintained without it". Petley points out that government took the decision to abolish the trade "with the express intention of improving, not destroying, the still-lucrative plantation economy of the British West Indies."<ref>Petley, ''White Fury'', pp. 190–209.</ref>{{full citation needed|date=July 2024}}