Outlawing slavery: An international chronology

1804 The new independent Black republic of Haiti becomes the first country in the world to permanently ban slavery and participation in the slave trade.      

1811 Spain abolishes the enslavement of Africans in all its colonies except Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Santo Domingo.

1821 Ecuador abolishes slavery. 

1821 Colombia abolishes slavery. 

1821 Venezuela abolishes slavery.

1822 Santo Domingo (present-day Dominican Republic) abolishes slavery for the second time. It had been abolished in 1801 but revived after Spanish colonial forces regained control of the colony from the French. Abolition is reaffirmed in the constitution of the first Dominican Republic in 1844. 

1823 Chile abolishes slavery. 

1829 Mexico abolishes slavery.

1833 Britain orders gradual abolition of slavery in all British colonies. Britain had abolished the slave trade in 1807.

1835 Seychelles, a country of 115 islands off the east coast of Africa, abolishes slavery with implementation effective in 1837.

1843 India abolishes slavery.

1847 Denmark begins phasing out slavery over a 12-year period; it had banned the transatlantic slave trade in 1792. Slavery is abolished in Denmark’s four Caribbean island colonies – St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas, and Water Island – in 1848.  

1847 Sweden abolishes slavery.

1848 France re-abolishes slavery unconditionally in its colonies. Slavery had first been outlawed by the French Republic in 1794, but that action was revoked by decree in 1802. France had abolished the slave trade in 1815, with effect from 1826.  

1848 Germany abolishes slavery.  

1858 Portugal abolishes slavery in its colonies, although all enslaved people are subject to a 20-year “apprenticeship.” In 1819, it had abolished the slave trade north of the equator.

1863 The Netherlands abolishes slavery in its main colony of Surinam, compensates enslavers, and institutes gradual emancipation over the next decade. In 1814, it had signed an international agreement to stop the slave trade. 

1863 Belgium abolishes slavery.  

1865 The United States abolishes slavery.

1873 Puerto Rico. The Spanish National Assembly abolishes slavery in its Caribbean colony. The emancipated are required to work another three years and their enslavers are compensated.

1886 Cuba abolishes slavery. 

1888 Brazil abolishes slavery.

1897 Zanzibar in east Africa ends slavery; it had officially abolished the slave trade in 1876.  

1900 Hawai’i outlaws slavery-like labor conditions after the U.S. annexes the territory. An 1850 law that allowed contract workers to be effectively treated as slaves is struck down.   

1901 Australia bans slavery. Like other British colonies, Australia is subject to an 1833 law that had outlawed slavery throughout the British empire (of which Australia is a part). But slavery continues in different forms; some Aboriginal people are subject to enslavement until the 1970s. 

1981 Mauritania becomes the last country in the world to officially abolish slavery. But the presidential decree that declares the ban contains no enforcement mechanisms. Under international pressure, the government passes a law in 2017 that allows enslavers to be prosecuted.