Denmark first responded to the denunciatory cries of the eighteenth century against slavery and the slave-trade.  In 1792, by royal order, this traffic was prohibited in the Danish possessions after 1802.  The principles of the French Revolution logically called for the extinction of the slave system by France.  This was, however, accomplished more precipitately than the Convention anticipated; and in a whirl of enthusiasm engendered by the appearance of the Dominican deputies, slavery and the slave-trade were abolished in all French colonies February 4, 1794.[2] This abolition was short-lived; for at the command of the First Consul slavery and the slave-trade was restored in An X (1799).[3] The trade was finally abolished by Napoleon during the Hundred Days by a decree, March 29, 1815, which briefly declared:  “A dater de la publication du present Decret, la Traite des Noirs est abolie."[4] The Treaty of Paris eventually confirmed this law.[5]

In England, the united efforts of Sharpe, Clarkson, and Wilberforce early began to arouse public opinion by means of agitation and pamphlet literature.  May 21, 1788, Sir William Dolben moved a bill regulating the trade, which passed in July and was the last English measure countenancing the traffic.[6] The report of the Privy Council on the subject in 1789[7] precipitated the long struggle.  On motion of Pitt, in 1788, the House had resolved to take up at the next session the question of the abolition of the trade.[8] It was, accordingly, called up by Wilberforce, and a remarkable parliamentary battle ensued, which lasted continuously until 1805.  The Grenville-Fox ministry now espoused the cause.  This ministry first prohibited the trade with such colonies as England had acquired by conquest during the Napoleonic wars; then, in 1806, they prohibited the foreign slave-trade; and finally, March 25, 1807, enacted the total abolition of the traffic.[9]

67. Concerted Action of the Powers, 1783-1814. During the peace negotiations between the United States and Great Britain in 1783, it was proposed by Jay, in June, that there be a proviso inserted as follows:  “Provided that the subjects of his Britannic Majesty shall not have any right or claim under the convention, to carry or import, into the said States any slaves from any part of the world; it being the intention of the said States entirely to prohibit the importation thereof."[10] Fox promptly replied:  “If that be their policy, it never can be competent to us to dispute with them their own regulations."[11] No mention of this was, however, made in the final treaty, probably because it was thought unnecessary.

In the proposed treaty of 1806, signed at London December 31, Article 24 provided that “The high contracting parties engage to communicate to each other, without delay, all such laws as have been or shall be hereafter enacted by their respective Legislatures, as also all measures which shall have been taken for the abolition or limitation of the African slave trade; and they further agree to use their best endeavors to procure the co-operation of other Powers for the final and complete abolition of a trade so repugnant to the principles of justice and humanity."[12]