Blockade of Africa

Part of the Suppression of the Slave Trade

HMS Brisk capturing the slave ship Emanuela.

Date	1808–1870
Location	Africa, South America, West Indies, North America, Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea
Result	Atlantic slave trade suppressed by 1865

Belligerents

United Kingdom

United States

African Slave traders

Commanders and leaders

Sir George Collier

Commodore Bullen

Matthew C. Perry

Jozé Antonio de la Vega
Francis Bowen

The Blockade of Africa began in 1808 after Britain outlawed the Atlantic slave trade, making it illegal for British ships to transport slaves. The Royal Navy immediately established a presence off Africa to enforce the ban, called the West Africa Squadron. Although the ban initially applied only to British ships, Britain negotiated treaties with other countries to give the Royal Navy the right to intercept and search their ships for slaves. A notable exception was the United States, which refused such permission. The 1807 Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves technically abolished the intercontinental slave trade in the United States but the ban was not widely enforced and many of the slave ships which escaped the blockade were destined for the southern United States.

From 1819, some effort was made by the United States Navy to prevent the slave trade. This mostly consisted of patrols of the shores of the Americas and in the mid-Atlantic, the latter being largely unsuccessful due to the difficulty of intercepting ships in mid-ocean. As part of the Webster–Ashburton Treaty of 1842 it was agreed that both countries would work together on the abolition of the slave trade, which was deemed piracy, and to continue the blockade of Africa. U.S. Navy involvement continued until the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861; the following year the Lincoln administration gave Britain full authority to intercept American ships. The Royal Navy squadron remained in operation until 1870.

The Slave Trade Act 1807 stated that:

The African Slave Trade, and all manner of dealing and trading in the Purchase, Sale, Barter, or Transfer of Slaves, or of Persons intended to be sold, transferred, used, or dealt with as Slaves, practised or carried on, in, at, to or from any Part of the Coast or Countries of Africa, shall be, and the same is hereby utterly abolished, prohibited, and declared to be unlawful.

In order to enforce this two ships were despatched to the African coast, their primary mission was to prevent British subjects from slave trading, and also to disrupt the slave trades of Britain's enemies during the Napoleonic Wars.

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