“The Slave Trade Act of 1794 was a law passed by the United States Congress that prohibited American ships from engaging the international slave trade. It was signed into law by President George Washington on March 22, 1794. This was the first of several anti-slavery trade-acts of Congress. In 1800, Congress strengthened it by sharply raising the fines and awarding informants the entire value of any ship seized.”
“In August 1795, Providence, Rhode Island merchant John Brown conspired to trade in slaves.[4][5] Brown conspired with a Captain Peleg Wood with the ship Hope to be used in the slave trade. By November Hope was engaged in the slave trade, and in March 1796, the owners of the ship were fined by Rhode Island the amount of £200 for trading in slaves, which had been outlawed in that state. On a voyage in 1796 Brown’s ship traveled to Havana, Cuba with 229 slaves. This trading voyage led to a trial of Brown in 1796 for violating the statute. Brown became the first American tried in federal court under the Slave Trade Act of 1794.[5] On October 5, 1797, Brown lost his case and was forced to forfeit the ship in accordance with the law.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_Trade_Act_of_1794
Funny how he had the same name as the radical abolitionist.
One of the reasons for independence was that the King had prohibited several of the colonies from abolishing slavery. Jefferson wrote a lovely anti-slavery clause.
However, the Continental Congress had passed a rule that all colonies would have to vote for independence or it would fail. The Carolinas objected and threatened to kill independence.
Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin made the political calculation “independence first, slavery later” because without independence, they would have had no chance of ending slavery.