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, prac-
ticed 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 kidnap-
ping, 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 Af-
ricans where chained together and stowed by the hun-
dreds 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 ac-
curate 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 Af-
ricans who were shipped from the continent perished dur-
ing the Middle Passage as a result of physical abuses, 
torture, malnutrition, disease, infection, suicide or reper-
cussions 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 fre-
quently on colonial and post-colonial plantations through-
out the Americas; 
Whereas historians estimate that 1,200,000 men, women, and 
children were later separated from their families and dis-
placed from their communities by being sold to 
slaveholders in other regions, colonies, States, and na-
tions 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 his-
tory;
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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 hu-
manity 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 trans-
atlantic slave trade, and has acknowledged that such acts 
were barbaric in their nature and were appalling trage-
dies; 
Whereas the slave trade and the legacy of slavery continue 
to have a profound impact on social and economic dis-
parity, hatred, bias, racism, and discrimination, and con-
tinue 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 re-
sult of slavery, including through exposure to the horrors 
of the Middle Passage and in revolt against, and resist-
ance 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 his-
tory of other nations of the Americas with appropriate 
research, scholarship, curriculum, textbooks, museum ex-
hibits and programs, library resources and programs, 
and cultural programs and activities. 
Attest: 
Clerk.