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Oct 6, 1502
slaves arive in the new world
After being captured and held in the factories, slaves entered the infamous Middle Passage. Around 2.2 million Africans died during these voyages where they were packed into tight, unsanitary spaces on ships for months at a time. Measures were taken to stem the onboard mortality rate such as enforced "dancing" (as exercise) above deck and the practice of force-feeding enslaved people who tried to starve themselves. -
France emptying out
France emancipates all slaves in the French colonies. In the United States, Congress passes legislation prohibiting the manufacture, fitting, equipping, loading or dispatching of any vessel to be employed in the slave trade. -
Start of the End
Britain and Spain sign a treaty prohibiting the slave trade. British naval vessels are given right to search suspected slave ships. Still, loopholes in the treaty undercut its goals and the slave trade grows with the slave economies of Cuba and Brazil expanding rapidly. In the Le Louis case, British courts establish the principal that British naval vessels cannot search foreign vessels suspected of slaving unless permitted by their respective countries. -
Cracking Down
The United States deems slave trading an act of piracy and punishable by the death penalty. The U.S. Navy dispatches four vessels to patrol the coast of West Africa for slavers. This initial campaign lasts only four years before the Americans recall the cruisers and break off cooperation with the British -
End of Slave Trade
The Atlantic slave trade was abolished over a 30-year period ending with Portugal’s 1836 ban on slave trading. But legal abolition did not end the still profitable trade. It continued illegally well into the 19th century. As long as there remained a market for slaves in the Americas, mostly in Brazil and Cuba, the trade would continue until the 1860s.
