H. Res. 272 

In the House of Representatives, U. S., 

May 1, 2007. 

Whereas the United Kingdom outlawed the African slave 

trade in 1807 by passing the Slave Trade Abolition Act 

which recognized 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 entailed the kidnapping, purchase and commercial export of Africans, mostly 

from West and Central Africa, to the European colonies 

and new nations in the Americas, including the United 

States, where they were enslaved in forced labor between 

the 15th and late 19th centuries; 

Whereas the term ‘‘Middle Passage’’ refers to the horrific 

part of the transatlantic slave trade when millions of Africans where chained together and stowed by the hundreds in overcrowded ships where they were forced into 

small spaces for months without relief as they were 

transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas; 
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Whereas historians claim that it is not possible to give an accurate number of slaves imported to the Americas from 

Africa, but scholars estimate that, at minimum, between 

10,000,000 and 15,000,000 Africans survived the Middle 

Passage, were imported as chattel through customs 

houses and ports across the Americas, and were sold into 

slavery; 

Whereas historians agree that many slaves arrived in the 

Americas ill with infections and diseases, disabled from 

the iron chains that bound them or from the physical 

abuse they endured, or traumatized by rape; 

Whereas historians estimate that 10 to 50 percent of the Africans who were shipped from the continent perished during the Middle Passage as a result of physical abuses, 

torture, malnutrition, disease, infection, suicide or repercussions from their resistance to their bondage; 

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 rebellions against slavery occurred frequently on colonial and post-colonial plantations throughout the Americas; 

Whereas historians estimate that 1,200,000 men, women, and 

children were later separated from their families and displaced from their communities by being sold to 

slaveholders in other regions, colonies, States, and nations in the inter-American and domestic slave trade that 

took place through much of the 19th century; 

Whereas the transatlantic slave trade is commonly recognized 

by historians as the largest forced migration in world history; 
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Whereas, as a result of the slave trade, an estimated 

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 institution of slavery, which enslaved Africans, 

their progeny and later generations for life, was legally 

sanctioned by the colonial governments and later the nations and States engaged in slavery, including the Government of the United States, through most of the 19th 

century; 

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

Whereas enslaved Africans and African Americans were defined as property that passed to heirs under inheritance 

laws of the British colonial rule and later under the laws 

of the various States; 

Whereas enslaved Africans adapted to their environment and 

created a new, rich culture that marked the development 

of the African American community and continues to 

strongly impact culture and society in the United States 

today; 

Whereas the slavery that flourished in the United States constituted an immoral and inhumane dispossession of 

human life, liberty, and citizenship rights and denied Africans and African Americans the fruits of their own 

labor; 

Whereas the treatment of enslaved Africans and African 

Americans in the colonies and the United States included 
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the deprivation of their freedom, exploitation of their 

labor, psychological and physical abuse, separation of 

families, and the targeted efforts to repress their culture, 

language, and religion through legal and social restrictive 

measures; 

Whereas enslavement has been defined as a crime against humanity pursuant to the Nuremberg Charter (Agreement 

for the Prosecution and Punishment of the Major War 

Criminals of the European Axis, entered into force on 

August 8, 1945 (82 U.N.T.S. 279)), and subsequent 

international tribunals for war crimes; 

Whereas the United Nations has adopted various treaties, 

declarations, and conventions and hosted conferences that 

condemn slavery and the slave trade, including the transatlantic slave trade, and has acknowledged that such acts 

were barbaric in their nature and were appalling tragedies; 

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 throughout the 

Americas today; and 

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

the Slave Trade Abolition Act enacted by the British 

Parliament: Now, therefore, be it 

Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

(1) recognizes the historical significance of the 

200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic 

slave trade to the people of the United States and to the 

world; 
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(2) respects the memory of those who died as a result of slavery, including through exposure to the horrors 

of the Middle Passage and in revolt against, and resistance to, enslavement; 

(3) supports the preservation of historical records 

and documents in private collections, local and State 

governments, shipping ports, and corporations in the 

United States and throughout the Americas relating to 

the transatlantic slave trade and the centuries of slavery 

that followed; and 

(4) urges increased education of current and future 

generations about slavery and its vestiges by honoring 

their significance in United States history and the history of other nations of the Americas with appropriate 

research, scholarship, curriculum, textbooks, museum exhibits and programs, library resources and programs, 

and cultural programs and activities. 

Attest: 

Clerk.