Press Releases

America Remembers the Abolitionist Movement

Freetown
March 5,2007                                                                            
Contact:PAO

As the US Embassy in Freetown wraps up activities observing Black History Month, we remember the abolitionist movement to ban slavery in the United States.  On March 2, 1807, United States President Thomas Jefferson signed a law passed by the United States Congress banning the African slave trade. The law took effect in the United States on Jan. 1, 1808.

However, that was not the beginning of the abolitionist movement in the United States.  Earlier, right after the American Revolution, some northern states passed emancipation legislation to free slaves, including Vermont in 1777, Massachusetts in 1780, New York in 1799, and New Jersey in 1804.  At that time, other northern states, including Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Connecticut adopted emancipation legislation which took effect gradually. In 1800, the United States barred U.S. citizens from exporting slaves. In 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. constitution finally outlawed slavery in the United States.

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