Today in Labor History March 22, 1794: President Washington signed the Slave Trade Act, which banned U.S. ships and citizens from engaging in the international slave trade. However, Americans continued to import and export slaves illegally, and other countries could still legally import slaves into the U.S. until 1807. A slave trader named John Brown, founder of Brown University, was the first person tried and acquitted under the Slave Trade Act. But the government still confiscated his ship. He was later elected to Congress.

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