France and the United States sign the Louisiana Purchase treaty

A planned revolt involving enslaved and free Black people was exposed after severe weather delayed the gathering. Authorities executed Gabriel and others and tightened controls. The plan drew on...

The constitution affirmed the end of slavery and made Louverture governor for life, while keeping the colony formally within the French empire. It reflected the political authority won by formerly...

Napoleon’s law maintained slavery in colonies returned to France under the Treaty of Amiens and reinstated the slave trade where it had been abolished. It sought to restore plantation wealth and...

A decree required Black, mixed-race, and other people of color to obtain authorization before entering continental France. The measure hardened racial exclusion in the metropole during the same period...

Denmark’s prohibition on its own participation in the transatlantic slave trade took effect after a decade-long delay between enactment and implementation. The ban ended legal Danish trafficking...

Haiti declared independence, following a revolution in which formerly enslaved people defeated French efforts to restore colonial rule. It became the first independent state born from a successful...

Haiti’s constitution established a postrevolutionary state after independence and prohibited slavery. It asserted sovereignty in a world where slaveholding powers sought to isolate the new republic...

Congress passed legislation in advance of the constitutional deadline, setting penalties for importing enslaved people from abroad beginning in 1808. The law prohibited legal importation but did not...

Congress enacted a ban on importing enslaved people into the United States, effective 1 January 1808. The law did not abolish slavery, the domestic slave trade, or the forced movement of people within...

The Slave Trade Act received royal assent, prohibiting British subjects from participating in the transatlantic slave trade from 1808. The law followed decades of Black and white organizing,...