ON THIS DAY...

3/2/1807

 

The United States Congress enacts law ending the African slave trade. The Constitution had said that Congress could ban the slave trade by the year 1808. Passing the law, however, did little good, since slave traders paid no attention to the new law, and the government did little to enforce it. Thousands of Black people continued to arrive in the U.S. in chains, because the demand for slave labor was endless.