An act banning the importation of slaves into the United States was passed by Congress in 1808 (though it did not ban slavery itself). By the 1820s other countries such as Spain, Holland, Sweden, and France had also passed laws against the slave trade. ...
New World slavery fit smoothly into a world economy, and its guilt, if it is to be inherited, can't be limited to the United States. Roughly half of the 9 or 10 million Africans brought in bondage to the New World were sent to the islands or Brazil, to sate Europe's sweet tooth ...