1807-00-00: (Great Britain Abolishes the Atlantic Slave Trade, a Decision Shaped in Part by the Haitian Revolution’s Demonstration That the Slave System Coul…

1807-00-00: (Great Britain Abolishes the Atlantic Slave Trade, a Decision Shaped in Part by the Haitian Revolution’s Demonstration That the Slave System Could Produce Catastrophic Resistance as Well as Wealth): In 1807, Great Britain abolished the Atlantic slave trade, ending British participation in the forced transportation of African people across the ocean. The decision was driven by decades of abolitionist agitation, economic recalculation, and the example of Haiti, which had demonstrated with devastating clarity that the slave system was unstable as well as immoral, capable of producing, alongside sugar and coffee, organized revolutionary violence that could destroy the most profitable colony in the Caribbean. The United States followed in 1808. But abolishing the trade was not the same as abolishing slavery itself, and the institution would persist in the Americas, most notably in Brazil and the American South, for decades to come.