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 Illi-
nois, 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, rec-
ognizing 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 ut-
terly 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 fif-
teenth 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 Afri-
ca; 
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 constitu-
tionally 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 Brit-
ish colonial rule included the sale and acquisition of Afri-
cans as chattel property in interstate and intrastate com-
merce; 
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, ac-
cording to the manner and custom of land of inherit-
ance’’; 
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, prompt-
ed 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 rep-
resentation in the House of Representatives; 
Whereas the slavery that flourished in the United States con-
stituted an immoral and inhumane dispossession of Afri-
cans’ 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, lan-
guage, 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 dis-
parity, hatred, bias, racism, and discrimination, and con-
tinue 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 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) recognizes the historical significance of the 
200th anniversary of the abolition of the trans-
atlantic slave trade to the world; 
(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; and 
(3) should educate current and future genera-
tions about this crime against humanity by honoring 
its significance in United States history with appro-
priate programs and activities. 
Æ 
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