End of the Slave Traffic in the World

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O End the African Slave Trade it was motivated by economic, humanitarian and religious reasons.

Throughout the 19th century, several European nations banned the slave trade and abolished slavery in their colonies due to a change in mentality and in the mode of production.

Summary

With the consolidation of the Enlightenment and liberalism, the ideas that considered black Africans as inferior beings and, therefore, subject to enslavement, were being questioned.

Blacks came to be seen as an uncivilized being and it would be up to the European to civilize them on their own continent.

The factors that contributed to the success of the end of slavery were precisely those that triggered its beginning.

Religious reasons

Religion, especially the Anglican Church and Protestantism, will play an essential role in this process.

Narratives by ex-slaves about the status of human commodities helped to fuel abolitionist movements in Europe.

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Gradually, the slave trade came to be classified as “trafficking”, “infamous trade” and “trade in souls”.

The thought gained popular support, reached the elite and slavery came to be morally attacked.

Churches and society began to organize themselves, promoting events and petitions calling for the end of slavery.

Economic Reasons

European nations, especially England, saw the African continent as a fruitful source of wealth. The maintenance of the system of trade in people was unfeasible for the exploitation of the continent's natural resources.

This was because slave traders were generally local chiefs and rulers. Although they operated in the trade in people, they limited the Europeans' entry beyond the coast.

Thus, the advantage for the exploration of the territory and the ideal labor force to work in mineral mines and agriculture would be greater.

There were also a number of natural products that served the infant industry such as rubber, palm oil and peanuts.

Likewise, slave labor had a lower cost than wage labor. Thus, those who used slave labor would offer a cheaper product than those who paid workers.

Fighting Trade

The process of abolition of slavery will be particular to each of the countries that used it. However, practically everyone started by abolishing the transport of slaves to their colonies, so that the slave population would not increase.

Afterwards, slavery was gradually abolished, starting by emancipating the young, or the unborn, as was the case with the Lei do Ventre Livre in Brazil. With this, they wanted to avoid social upheavals and allow time for the transition from slave to free labor.

Also, the supply of slave labor to work in the American colonies began to break down after successive internal revolts at the end of the 18th century.

Among the most important is that of Haiti, whose independence resulted from slave revolts. The French colony was the only American American possession to have its independence entirely held by slaves.

The first country to ban the slave trade to its colonies was Denmark in 1792.

England banned the trafficking of enslaved human beings in 1807 in the North Atlantic, a measure that affected the colonies of the Caribbean and the southern United States.

Later, he pressured both Dom João VI and Dom Pedro I to abolish the slave trade between Africa and Brazil.

However, the abolition of slavery in Brazil it would be slow and gradual, with parliament controlling the process so as not to undo the established order.

Consequences

Slavery will have consequences both on the African continent and in America.

Africa

Slavery in Africa left a deep imprint on the continent. It is estimated that about 12 million people passed through the Atlantic to America. These could have served for its economic and intellectual development.

With the occupation of African territory and the subsequent Africa Sharing we see an increase in ethnic wars and social disintegration.

colonies

In all countries that used slave labor we can see the same results. Afro-descendants suffer racism, are at the base of society, have lower income and more chances of being poor.

Despite all this perverse effect, blacks dispersed throughout the world carried within themselves their culture ancestor, their customs, their religion and their knowledge of agriculture and animal husbandry.

In this way, they mixed their culture with that of the colonizer and the result is seen in music such as samba, tango, salsa, Cuban danzón, jazz, blues, etc.

Religions were also reinterpreted and gave rise to Candomblé, Santeria, Candombe, Umbanda, etc.

The cuisine was enriched with vegetable flavors such as okra and yam, the constant use of beans and new ways to prepare poultry and meat.

End of Slavery Chronology

1773	Slavery abolished in Portugal.
1777	End of slavery in Madeira Island.
1792	Denmark prohibits the slave trade to its Caribbean colonies, the present-day Virgin Islands (USA). It is the first country to do so.
1794	Haiti decrees the end of slavery.
1802	Napoleon Bonaparte restores slavery in Haiti.
1803	The law prohibiting the slave trade to the Danish colonies comes into force.
1807	England bans the North Atlantic slave trade. Months later, the United States would ban the trafficking, although it continued to participate in the Caribbean trade.
1810	England yields and allows the gradual abolition of slaves in Portuguese possessions. Only Portuguese territories in Africa could continue to traffic.
1811	In Chile, freedom for all those born into slavery and the end of the slave trade was declared.
1813	Argentina decrees freedom for all those born into slavery after that date.
1814	The Netherlands prohibits the slave trade.
1816	The slave trade is declared illegal in France and its colonies.
1816	Simón Bolívar grants freedom to all slaves who join the Patriot Army.
1817	King Fernando VII forbids the slave trade to the Spanish colonies.
1821	End of slave trade to Peru and implementation of a plan to gradually end slavery.
1822	Abolition of slavery in Santo Domingo.
1823	Chile bans slavery.
1823	The abolition of slavery was decreed in the United Provinces of Central America (present-day Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras).
1826	End of slavery in Bolivia.
1829	Mexico decrees the end of slavery.
1831	The Feijó Law was enacted, which decreed free all slaves arriving in Brazil from that year onwards.
1833	The English Parliament extinguishes slavery in the British Empire. From 1833 to 1838, slave labor in the Antilles, Belize and Bahamas (West Indies), Guyana and Mauritius will be abolished.
1840	The Swedish Parliament decrees the end of the slave trade in the colony of Saint Bartholomew, in the Caribbean.
1842	Abolished slavery in Uruguay.
1845	England bans the slave trade between Africa in the South Atlantic through the Bill Aberdeen Law.
1847	Abolition of slavery on the island of St. Bartholomew, then a colony of Sweden.
1848	Denmark frees slaves in its colonies.
1848	The Second French Republic decrees the end of slavery in its colonies.
1850	sanctioned to Eusébio de Queirós Law, which prohibits the trade of blacks to Brazil.
1851	Abolition of slavery in Ecuador where owners were compensated for each freed slave.
1852	Abolition of slavery in Colombia.
1853	End of slavery in Argentina.
1854	Venezuela and Peru decree the end of slavery
1862	Prohibition of slave trade to Cuba.
1863	End of slavery in the Dutch colonies of the Antilles and Suriname.
1865	United States of America decrees the end of slavery and the southern states decide to separate from the Union. Starts to secession war.
1869	Slavery abolished in Paraguay.
1869	The end of slavery was decreed in all colonies in Portugal.
1871	Enacted the law of the free womb in Brazil.
1873	Abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico.
1875	End of slavery in São Tomé and Príncipe.
1884	Slavery is extinct in Ceará.
1885	Enacted the Sexagenarian Law in Brazil.
1886	End of slavery in Cuba.
1888	End of slavery in Brazil with the Golden Law.
1890	England decrees the end of slavery in Tunisia.
1897	Abolition of slavery in Madagascar.
1936	Abolition of Slavery in Nigeria.
1963	Abolition of slavery in Saudi Arabia.
1981	End of slavery in Mauritania.