America Remembers the Abolitionist Movement

As the United States Embassy in Freetown wraps up activities marking the Black History Month, a press release issued yesterday from the US Embassy stated that Americans remember the abolitionist movement to ban slavery in the United States.

The release wrote that on March 2, 1807, the US President Thomas Jefferson signed a law passed by the US Congress banning African Slave Trade. The law took effect in the US on January 1, 1808 but it was not the beginning of the abolitionist movement in the United Sates but that earlier after the American Revolution, some northern states including Vermont in 1777, Massachusetts in 1780, New York in 1799 and New Jersey in 1804 passed emancipation legislation to free slaves. At that time, other northern states including Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Connecticut also adopted emancipation legislation which took effect gradually.

In 1800, the Unites States barred US citizens from exporting slaves and in 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment of the US Constitution finally outlawed slavery in the United States, the statement concluded.

Link to allAfrica.com: Sierra Leone: America Remembers the Abolitionist Movement (Page 1 of 1)