I must correct false statements in two recent letters to the editor, namely, that the abolition of slavery was an original, uniquely American idea. In his letter, Michael Byrnes stated wrongly that “abolition and the emancipation of slaves was a new idea, an American idea.” And DeWolf Fulton stated, “slavery flourished for centuries … until America's bold example.”

Fact #1: European nations started banning importation of slaves before the U.S. According to Reuters, Denmark was the first to ban importation of slaves in 1792. And, in 1807, slave trading was banned throughout the worldwide British empire. Then, in 1808, an act of Congress, the “Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves” took effect (source: National Archives).

However, shipping of slaves from one state to another was still allowed, as was the shipment of thousands of enslaved Native Americans from the U.S. to the Caribbean. The illegal importation of slaves to the U.S. continued despite this law. The last slave ship, Clotilda, arrived in Mobile Bay in 1860.

Fact #2:  The abolition of slavery itself did not originate in America. Slavery was banned throughout the British Empire in 1833 (source: Encyclopedia Britannica). This included Canada, which explains the existence of the underground railroad, a means by which those enslaved in the U.S. could find freedom in Canada. It took an additional 32 years and 750,000 Civil War dead for the 13^th Amendment to the Constitution to finally abolish slavery here. 

The authors use their baseless claim that America led the way to the abolition of slavery to argue against the need to teach Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public schools. I am not qualified to judge the merits of CRT, but I do reject arguments based on fabrications. All it takes is a simple Google search or two, as I have done, to get your facts straight. 

Gary Watros
Bristol