Slavery Abolishment Act

Slavery began in America in 1619 at Jamestown, Virginia, a British colony at the time. The American Revolution against the British in Delaware and Virginia in 1776 and 1778 witnessed the first hints of slave trade abolition. From 1777 through 1780, thirteen British colonies began a gradual emancipation of Africans. Vermont was the first colony to outlaw the slave trade. These efforts and victories resulted in the passage of the Slave Trade Abolition Act of 1807, which prohibited the slave trade. The statute imposed harsh fines and penalties on those found to be involved in such dealings. Its enactment and policing faced implementation challenges mainly from the conservative government.
 Continued resistance against slavery led to the formation of societies such as Maryland Society and the Relief of Free Negroes in the year 1789. To perfect the union, the former colonies changed the Articles of Federation with a new constitution. According to Hall et al. (2011), the United States Constitution did not specifically mention slaves. It only provided for the return of the outlaws. The constitution only allowed the slave per each state to be counted as three-fifths of a person. This constitutional provision was aimed to determine the population as well as the representation in the House of Representatives.

The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was approved on the March 25th, 1807. The act declared that beginning the May 1st, 1807 “All manner of dealings and reading in the purchase, sale, barter, however or practiced or carried, in, at, or from any part of the coast or countries of Africa shall be abolished, prohibited and declared to be unlawful”, Hall Et Al (2011).



Provisions of the Act:

One of the provision stated that any ship(s) found participating in the in the now illegal slave trade would be liable to be apprehended and fated. Additionally, both the captain and the owner would be fined an amount not exceeding 100 pounds (£) per a captive. Furthermore, the ship plus all its goods on board to be surrendered to the crown. Anyone who would aid the authorities in capturing the illegal vessels would earn a bounty or a specific amount per head, (Hall et al. 2011). The reward was thirty pounds per an adult slave and ten pounds (£) per any child under the age of fourteen.

Secondly, the act provided that any captive “freed” from the illegal captors did not have the full independence to as they wished. Instead, the males were recruited in the military and were considered to have ‘voluntarily enlisted’ themselves into it. Women, minors and those deemed not to have met the minimum standards for the ‘voluntary enlistment’ were bound as the confines to the owners of the land, military and the government as manual workers and domestic servants, Hall et al. (2011).

Enactment and Policing

The enormous fines and potential jail time on the statute were sufficient enough to discourage a majority of the slave trafficker. Furthermore, for Jefferson Government, least liked by the federal authority, the act 1807 granted enormous power to the national government. However, the insufficient funds from the Congress-led to some failure in enforcing the Statute. Funding was however complicated till the civil war. King (2011).

In the wake its enactment, an additional complication arose regarding the fate of the illegally introduced slaves. According to King (2011), the captives should have been deported or be released in the United States. The act anyway was aimed at ending the importation of slaves of the African race. However, either option was not possible under the Jefferson administration. Jefferson together with most leaders from his party were hostile towards the idea of free Africans. His administration had little, or no interest in freeing captives brought introduced into the country. The government deemed it a misuse of resources such as time and money to deport the slaves to Africa. According to Jefferson, the fact that the slaves were introduced illegally to America did not mean they should be free.

In line with President Jefferson’s ideology, regarding hostility towards free blacks, and the deemed misuse of resources on the same, the law provided that all the captives found in America would fall under the law governing the respective state in which the slave residing. Practically, this meant that they would become United States slaves and the individual state would benefit from the proceeds generated from their sale (Hall et al. 2011). The law provision ensured that America would benefit from the profits arising from the disposal of the seized ships, and the arrested slave traders. The informants on those who violated the law as well as the crew of the ships that captured the illegal operators would also benefit from a particular percentage realized from the same of the ship.

It’s worth to note that the abolishment act did not bring a major improvement for the majority of the ex-slaves. The whites developed new discriminatory tactics including segregation more than 100 years after the act. Continued sidelining saw the rise of stronger civil movements fronted by international figures such as Martin Luther King. The movement eventually succeeded in bringing about legal racial equality. However, despite the achievements of the movements, a majority of the Negroid Americans still faces sharp discrimination in both the economic and social aspects up-to-date.

References

Hall, E., Alston, R., & McConnell, J. (Eds.). (2011). Ancient slavery and abolition: from Hobbes to Hollywood. Oxford University Press.

King, W. (2011). Stolen childhood: Slave youth in nineteenth-century America. Indiana University Press.