Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves
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| Long title | An Act to prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States, from and after the first day of January, in the year of our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eight. |
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| Enacted by | the 9th United States Congress |
| Effective | January 1, 1808 |
| Citations | |
| Public law | 9-22 |
| Statutes at Large | 2 Stat. 426 |
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The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807 (2 Stat. 426, enacted March 2, 1807) is a United States federal law that stated that no new slaves were permitted to be imported into the United States. It took effect in 1808, the earliest date permitted by the United States Constitution.
This legislation was part of the general trend toward abolishing the international slave trade, which individual U.S. states had restricted during the American Revolution, and the national Congress first regulated against in the Slave Trade Act of 1794. The 1807 Act ended the legality of trade with the U.S. However, it was not always well enforced and slaves continued to be imported in limited numbers.
Slavery itself continued in the Southeastern United States until the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the adoption of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. The domestic slave trade within the U.S. was unaffected by the 1807 law.
Article 1 Section 9 of the United States Constitution protected the slave trade for twenty years. Only starting January 1, 1808, could there be a federal law to entirely abolish the international slave trade, although individual states could and did ban it at any time.
The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.
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