IV 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 272 

Commemorating the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic 

slave trade. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 26, 2007 

Ms. LEE (for herself, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, Mr. 

MCDERMOTT, Mr. RANGEL, Ms. LINDA T. SA ́NCHEZ of California, Mr. 

BUTTERFIELD, Mr. SCHIFF, Mr. ELLISON, Mr. FATTAH, Mr. LEWIS of 

Georgia, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, and Ms. KILPATRICK) submitted the following resolution; which was 

referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Commemorating the 200th anniversary of the abolition of 

the transatlantic slave trade. 

Whereas the United Kingdom outlawed slavery in 1807, recognizing 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, practiced 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’’; 

Whereas the transatlantic slave trade was the capture and 

procurement of Africans, mostly from West Africa, to the 


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•HRES 272 IH 

United States and the colonies that became the United 

States for the purpose of enslavement between the fifteenth and late nineteenth centuries; 

Whereas the Middle Passage was the forced migration 

through overseas transport of millions of Africans to the 

Americas, many of whom suffered abuses of rape and 

perished as a result of torture, malnutrition, disease and 

resistance in transit and those who survived were sold 

into slavery; 

Whereas during the transatlantic slave trade more than 

12,000,000 Africans were transported in bondage from 

their African homelands to the Americas, and those born 

in the Americas estimating 1,200,000 men, women, and 

children who were displaced in the forced migration that 

was the domestic slave trade; 

Whereas it is important to acknowledge that as a result of 

the slave trade, approximately 80,000,000 to 

150,000,000 persons of African descent live in Latin 

America and the Caribbean, making them the largest 

population of persons of African descent outside of Africa; 

Whereas the transatlantic slave trade is characterized as the 

largest forced migration in world history; 

Whereas Africans’ resistance to the transatlantic slave trade 

culminated in revolts—collective acts of rebellion— 

against slave ships and their crews during the Middle 

Passage and on the colonial plantations; 

Whereas the institution of slavery which enslaved Africans, 

their progeny and later generations for life was constitutionally and statutorily sanctioned by the Government of 

the United States from 1789 through 1865; 


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•HRES 272 IH 

Whereas slavery in the United States during and after British colonial rule included the sale and acquisition of Africans as chattel property in interstate and intrastate commerce; 

Whereas the General Assembly of Virginia passed in 1619 

‘‘an act declaring the Negro, Mulatto, . . . slaves within 

this dominion, to be real estate and shall descend unto 

the heirs and widows of persons departing this life, according to the manner and custom of land of inheritance’’; 

Whereas the Great Compromise of 1787, a compromise under 

which representation in the House of Representatives 

would be based on the population of each State, prompted the Three-Fifths Compromise, a compromise between 

the Northern and Southern States under which only 

three-fifths of the population of enslaved Africans would 

be counted for purposes of enumerating a State’s representation in the House of Representatives; 

Whereas the slavery that flourished in the United States constituted an immoral and inhumane dispossession of Africans’ life, liberty, and citizenship rights and denied them 

the fruits of their own labor; 

Whereas the treatment of enslaved Africans in the colonies 

and the United States included the deprivation of their 

freedom, exploitation of their labor, psychological and 

physical abuse, and destruction of their culture, language, religion, and families; 

Whereas the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial 

Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance, 

held in Durban, South Africa, declared the slave trade 

and slavery a crime against humanity; 


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•HRES 272 IH 

Whereas the slave trade and the legacy of slavery continue 

to have a profound impact on social and economic disparity, hatred, bias, racism, and discrimination, and continue to affect people of African descent today; and 

Whereas March 25, 2007, marks the 200th anniversary of 

the Slave Trade Abolition Act enacted by the British 

Parliament: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) recognizes the historical significance of the 

3 200th anniversary of the abolition of the trans4 atlantic slave trade to the world; 

5 (2) respects the memory of those who died as 

6 a result of slavery, including through exposure to the 

7 horrors of the Middle Passage and in revolt against 

8 and resistance to enslavement; and 

9 (3) should educate current and future genera10 tions about this crime against humanity by honoring 

11 its significance in United States history with appro12 priate programs and activities. 

Æ 


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