A Horde of Foreign Freebooters: The U.S. and the Suppression of the Slave Trade

Between 1808 and 1820, the U.S. Congress enacted increasingly punitive laws against slave trading. This paper argues that these acts were used to protect U.S. commerce and assert national sovereignty against other nations since, during this time period, the lines between pirate and legal merchant often blurred and threatened legitimate trade. It is no coincidence that the Slave Trade Acts were passed to increase the federal protection of commerce, especially after several real threats to U.S. commercial interests. While the territories in question were not on U.S. soil, informal smuggling networks caused the illegal import of commodities and slaves into the United States. I illustrate how the U.S. employed laws against the slave trade to demonstrate its national strength in these border conflicts.