Slavery was made illegal in Canada in 1834 through the legislation of 1833. John Graves had challenged the legality of slavery in 1793.
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In the United States, slavery was made illegal through the passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865. This amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for a crime.
The colony that made slavery illegal but eventually allowed it was Georgia. Slavery was prohibited in Georgia at its founding in 1733, but the ban was lifted in 1749 due to economic pressures and demands for labor.
Slavery was first made illegal in the Northern states of the United States. The state of Vermont was the first to abolish slavery in its constitution in 1777, followed by Pennsylvania in 1780. By the early 1800s, Northern states had all gradually abolished slavery.
Slavery was made illegal in England in 1772, following the landmark Somerset v Stewart case which ruled that chattel slavery did not have a basis in common law. This judgment did not abolish slavery in the entire British Empire, but it laid important legal groundwork for future abolition efforts.
Massachusetts Bay Colony passed the first anti-slavery law in America in 1641. This law made slavery illegal for those who converted to Christianity.