Slave Trade Ends: US Abolishes International Commerce in 1807
The U.S. Congress banned all international slave trade effective January 1, 1808, reclassifying the importation of enslaved people as piracy punishable by death in 1819. This legislation forced the Navy to patrol Cuban and South American coasts while ending legal foreign supply lines. Despite these measures, over one million enslaved individuals still moved forcibly from the Upper South to the Deep South through domestic trade before the Civil War ended the institution entirely.
March 2, 1807
219 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on March 2
Belisarius commanded just 5,000 men inside Rome when 150,000 Ostrogoths arrived at the walls. The Byzantine general knew he couldn't hold the city through conve…
He ruled for exactly one year and seventeen days. Louis V, crowned King of the Franks at age twenty, had the shortest reign of any Carolingian monarch—cut down …
Louis V ascended the throne of West Francia following his father Lothaire’s death, inheriting a crown stripped of its former authority. His brief, ineffective r…
A sixteen-year-old inherited a waterlogged backwater that nobody wanted. Dirk VI became Count of Holland in 1121, taking control of marshlands so worthless that…
Assassins struck down Charles the Good while he knelt in prayer at the Church of Saint Donatian in Bruges. His sudden death triggered a violent succession crisi…
The Byzantine emperor didn't even try to save it. Nicaea — where the Christian Church had defined the nature of Christ itself a thousand years earlier — fell to…
Talk to History
Have a conversation with historical figures who witnessed this era. Ask questions, explore perspectives, and bring history to life.