CLASS NOTES ON CANADIAN IMPORTATION LAWS

For the British statute passed the same year, see Slave Trade Act 1807.
The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807 (2 Stat. 426, enacted
March 2, 1807) is a United States federal law that provided that no new
slaves were permitted to be imported into the United States. It took
effect on January 1, 1808, the earliest date permitted by the United
States Constitution.
This legislation was promoted by President Thomas Jefferson, who
called for its enactment in his 1806 State of the Union Address. He and
others had promoted the idea since the 1770s. It reflected the force of
the general trend toward abolishing the international slave
trade which Virginia, followed by all the other states, had prohibited or
restricted since then. South Carolina, however, had reopened its trade.
Congress first regulated against the trade in the Slave Trade Act of 1794.
The 1794 Act ended the legality of American ships participating in the
trade. The 1807 law did not change that—it made all importation from
abroad, even on foreign ships, a federal crime.