Abolition of Slavery

This grouping of commemorative works focus on the abolition of slavery in countries engaged with the slave trade including England, France, The Netherlands, and Spain. England enacted the Slave Trade Act of 1807, prohibiting the Atlantic slave trade in the British Empire. It did not abolish slavery in its colonies until the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act. France first abolished slavery on February 4, 1794, during the French Revolution. Napolean Bonaparte reinstituted slavery in France's colonies in 1802. Slavery was officially abolished in France with the Decree of the Abolition of Slavery of April 27, 1848. The Netherlands officially abolished slavery in its colonies (Suriname and the Dutch Caribbean) on July 1, 1863, but it was not until July 1, 1873, that enslaved persons were freed from state supervision on plantations. Spain abolished the slave trade in 1817 with a treaty with England, which was not enforced until 1820. However, slavery continued in its colonies. The Spanish National Assembly abolished slavery in Puerto Rico in 1863 and in Cuba in 1886.

Updated January 26, 2026