Federal Slave Trade Ban Takes Effect

The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves took effect January 1, 1808, as soon as constitutionally permissible. While it ended the legal international trade, enforcement was minimal and illegal importation continued until the 1860s. Far more consequentially, the ban supercharged the domestic slave trade: approximately 1 million enslaved people were sold interstate between 1808 and 1860, separating families on a mass scale.