The United States of America abolished the slave-trade immediately after Great Brit ain, and the same was in the course of time done by the South American republics of Venezuela, Chili, and Buenos Ayres, by Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and during the hundred days after Napoleon's return from Elba, by France. Great Britain, at the peace, exerted her influence to induce other foreign powers to adopt a similar policy; and event ually nearly all the states of Europe have passed laws or entered into treaties prohibit ing the traffic. The accession of Portugal and Spain to the principle of abolition was obtained by treaties of date 1815 and 1817, and by a convention concluded with Brazil in 1826, it was declared piratical for the subjects of that country to be engaged in the slave-trade after 1830. By the conventions with France of 1831 and 1833, to which nearly all the maritime powers of Europe have since acceded, a mutual right of search was stipulated within certain seas, for the purpose of suppressing this traffic. The pro visions of these treaties were further extended in 1841 by the quintuple treaty between the five great European powers, subsequently ratified by all of them except France. The Ashburton treaty of 1849 With the United States provided for the maintenance by each country of a squadron on the African coast; and in 1845, a joint co-operation of the naval forces of England and France was substituted for the mutual right of search.
The limitation of the supply of negroes naturally led, antbeg other good results, to a greater attention on the part of the masters to the condition of their slaves. But the attention of British philanthropists was next directed toward doing away with slavery altogether in our colonies. Societies were formed with this end, an agitation was set on foot, and attempts were made, for some time without success, to press the subject of emancipation on the house of commons. At length, in 1833, a ministerial proposition for emancipation was introduced by Mr. Stanley, then colonial secretary, and an eman cipation. bill passed both houses, and obtainedi the royal assent, Aug. 28, 1833. This act„while it gave freedom to the slaves throughout all the British colonies, at the same time awarded an indemnification to the slave-owners of £20,000,000. Slavery was to cease on Aug 1, 1834; but the slaves were for a certain duration of time to he appren ticed laborers to their former owners. Objections being raised to the apprenticeship, its duration was shortened, and the complete enfranchisement took place in 1838.
The French emancipated their negroes in 1848; as did most of the new republics of South America at the time of the revolution; while the Dutch slaves had freedom con ferred on them in 1863. In Hayti slavery ceased as far back as 1791, its abolition having been one of the results of the negro insurrection of that year. Slavery still exists in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies, but recent acts have been passed for its abolition. In Brazil a law for the gradual emancipation of slaves was passed in 1871.. It enacts that from that date children born of slave women shall be free; while, at the same time, they are bound to serve the owners of their mothers as apprentices for twenty-one years. A recent treaty between Great Britain and the sultan of Zanzibar secures, in promise, the speedy abolition of the slave-trade on the opposite eastern coast of Africa. The expedition of sir Samuel Baker in 1873 was announced as having put
an end to the slave-trade to the s. of Egypt, as far as the equator. How far the khedive was sincere in coupling this object with the conquest of the Nile regions is doubtful; and it is certain that most of his officers, and an army of slave-hunters, are bent on defeating the attempt. In 1S74 the British governor at the gold coast, where domestic slavery still existed, announced that thenceforth no person could be sold as a slave in the protectorate, or removed from it for that .purpose.
In presence of the statement in the "Declaration of Independence," that "all men are born free and equal, and possess equal and inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," the colonies which threw off the British yoke numbered several hundred thousand negro slaves, whose condition of slavery was expressly recognized in the constitution of the United States, as ratified in 1788, provision being there made for the rendition of fugitive slaves, a subject the regulation of which was delegated to the federal government, slavery being otherwise left to be governed by the laws of the states where it existed. Slavery established itself firmly in the southern states, where negro labor was required for the cultivation of sugar and cotton; and after the limitation of the supply from Africa, the breeding of slaves went on to a large extent in Maryland and Virginia for the supply of the other states of the south. The different positions of the northern and southern states regarding slavery, combined with other causes to engender that diversity of feeling and interest between north and south out of which arose the civil war. The politicians of the north, however, except a small section, by no means advocated the abolition of slavery where it already existed; they only obj-eted to its extension to new territories. The increased consumption of cotton ted to an increased demand for slave-labor; and in 1820, when Missouri was admitted to the union as a slave state, a compromise was entered into by which slavery was legalized to the south, but prohibited to the north of 36° 30' n. lat. (see MASON AND DIXON'S LINE). California, though partly lying s. of that geographical line, was admitted as a free state, the south , ern party obtaining in compensation the boon of an amendment of the fugitive slave law, making it penal to harbor runaway slaves or aid in their escape. A reaction against the policy of the south, and Mr. Lincoln's election as president, were the signals for a long-contemplated secession of the southern states, and the bloody war width ended in the overthrow of the prinCiple of state-sovereignty and the consolidation of the union. In the course of the war many negroes were emancipated; and on Sept. 22, 1862, Mr. Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring all the negroes of secession masters who should not have returned to the union before Jan. 1, 1863, to be free. Since then the legislatures of the different states have formally accepted the ameudment of the constitution, and passed an act for the abolition of slavery.