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Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The UN Commemorates the Bicentennial of the British Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
On March 26, 2007 the United Nations commemorated the bicentennial of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade by Great Britain. After having deported about three million African men, women, and children to the Americas, the United Kingdom had passed a law on March 25, 1807 making the slave trade illegal. A few weeks before, on March 3, Thomas Jefferson had signed into law an act “to prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States.” It went into effect on January 1, 1808, and the country will commemorate the abolition of its foreign slave trade in 2008. However, the deportation of Africans continued, as France, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, and Brazil abolished their respective slave trades only later. Between 1801 and 1867, an estimated 3.6 million Africans were forcibly sent to the Americas, several thousands of them, illegally, to the United States.
In the end, about 12.3 million Africans had been uprooted, and 10.5 million had survived the Middle Passage. Over 4.89 million were destined to Brazil alone, 800,000 to Jamaica, 750,000 to Saint Domingue (Haiti), and 443,000 to the United States. The 2007 UN commemoration was initiated by the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), which introduced a resolution to that effect on November 20, 2006. It was adopted by the General Assembly on November 28.
Statements on the Resolution Statement by UN Secretary-General on Slavery Exhibition Statements on Day of Commemoration Representative Charles B. Rangel’s
Resolution in US Congress |
