6th April 2010.
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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.
Slavery was made illegal in Canada in 1834 through the Slavery Abolition Act, which emancipated all enslaved individuals in British colonies, including Canada. Upon receiving news of the Act, slavery officially ended in Canada on August 1, 1834.
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.
Lord Mansfield, the Chief Justice of Britain, did not make the slave trade illegal, but his judgment in the 1772 Somerset v Stewart case played a significant role in advancing the abolitionist cause by effectively ending slavery in England. His decision ruled that slavery was unsupported by law in England and Wales, implicitly leading to limitations on the practice.