The decline of the black slave trade is the result of the capitalist social movement and a product of historical development. Its emergence has deep social, political and economic roots.

First, after entering the period of free capitalism, the economic development of capitalism gradually conflicted with the slave trade

. Therefore, the slave trade increasingly lost the value of its continued existence.

In the 1760s, Britain took the lead in entering the Industrial Revolution. At the beginning of the 19th century, the United States, France and other countries also started the industrial revolution. The leap of the capitalist economy from factory handicrafts to large machine production in the factory system has enabled the development of capitalist productivity to reach an unprecedented speed. To this end, industrial capital urgently needs a corresponding large army of free wage labor and a vast foreign market. However, slave labor lacks personal freedom and its actions are completely controlled and dominated by slave owners. Therefore, the continued existence of slave trade and slavery will directly hinder the free wage labor force. of formation. In addition, due to the loss of freedom, slaves not only lacked enthusiasm for production, but also often broke tools and machines, so production efficiency was extremely low. As early as 1776, Adam Smith pointed out that wage labor was cheaper than slave labor. He gave the example that slave labor costs five times more than wage labor to cultivate the same land.

Historical development has confirmed his statement. By the end of the 18th century, the British sugar plantations in the Caribbean had clearly shown their disadvantages, and the slave sugar industry increasingly became a burden to the British economic development.

The existence of the slave trade also brings difficulties to the development of Africa. Africa is a vast land and rich in resources. It is an ideal commodity market and source of raw materials for the West. The slave trade forced a large number of African labor forces overseas, causing the African population to decline. Therefore, only by abolishing the slave trade can we utilize African labor force locally, develop local rich natural resources, and make Africa a stable commodity sales market. In the late 18th century, the profit of exporting a shipment of palm oil from Africa was much higher than that of trafficking a shipment of slaves. This fact shows that under the influence of the laws of capitalist economic development, Western industrial capital has paid more and more attention to the development of African resources. In contrast, the slave trade has shown signs of decline.

Second, the black resistance struggle shook the foundation of the slave trade and accelerated its decline.

The resistance struggle of the African people runs through the entire process of the slave trade. In Africa itself, the freedom-loving African people of all ethnic groups were unwilling to become slaves. They were not afraid of violence, persisted in fighting, and severely cracked down on the activities of slave traders. Slave riots were common during the slave trade (see Chapter 1 of this volume). In Western colonies such as the Americas, African slaves could not bear the abuse and torture of plantation slave owners, and often resorted to idle work, breaking tools, escaping, and revolting to fight. Large-scale slave uprisings broke out in the three major slave-holding areas of the Caribbean, Brazil and the United States. The Haitian Revolution in 1791 pushed the black slave struggle to a climax. Under the leadership of Toussaint Louverture, the black slaves defeated the French and Spanish colonial armies and declared Haiti's independence in June 1801. The newly born Negro Republic promulgated a constitution, abolished slavery

and liberated all black slaves. The Haitian Revolution was a shining example of the struggle of black slaves and was the first successful abolition

< p>The great revolution that eliminated plantation slavery. Inspired by the Haitian Revolution, large-scale independence wars broke out across Latin America one after another, targeting colonialism, feudalism and plantation slavery. After the victory of the War of Independence, many Latin American countries promulgated laws to abolish and restrict slavery.

Third, the rise of abolitionist movements in Western countries has had a powerful impact on the slave trade and slavery.

With regard to the slave trade and plantation slavery, insightful people in the West have long voiced their opposition.

Bourgeois Enlightenment thinkers such as Locke, Montesquieu and Voltaire all condemned and criticized the slave trade

and slavery. In the second half of the 18th century, with the changes in the political and economic situation caused by the development of capitalist productive forces, and as the evils of the slave trade and slavery became increasingly recognized by people, people at all levels of society

p>

Calls for the abolition of the slave trade and slavery continued to grow. In 1772, British abolitionists struggled to force the British Supreme Court to abolish slavery in the country during the hearing of James Somerset's case. This victory greatly encouraged abolitionists in Western countries, further promoted the rise of the abolition movement, and also opened the prelude to the worldwide movement to ban the slave trade.

From the 1870s to the 1880s, abolitionists established specialized organizations one after another, such as the British Association for the Abolition of the African Slave Trade and the French "Friends of the Negroes". American abolitionists established the first local abolitionist group in Philadelphia as early as 1775, and held a national abolitionist congress in 1794.

< p>Yes. Abolitionists and their organizations in Western countries were active in activities, holding mass rallies, delivering agitprop speeches,

publishing newspapers and periodicals, writing monographs and articles, fiercely criticizing the evil slave trade and slavery, and promoting abolition

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The slave movement was widely carried out.

The American Revolutionary War and the French Revolution injected new vitality into the emerging abolition movement. The ideas contained in the Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of Human Rights that "all men are created equal" and "all men are born and always are free and equal in terms of rights" were reflected in the victory of the revolution. It spread widely in cheers and provided a powerful ideological weapon for the abolition movement.

It should be pointed out that the elements participating in the abolition movement are relatively complex. There are religious groups such as Quakers and Evangelicals

as well as representatives of the bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie, as well as broad grassroots groups. working people. The motivations of various political forces to oppose the slave trade and slavery are not consistent. Some criticize the barbarity of anti-religion from a religious standpoint; some criticize it. The crime of anti-humanism; the industrial bourgeoisie attempted to incorporate the abolition movement

into the track of competing with the commercial bourgeoisie for the dominance of colonial policy; while the broad masses of working people tried to bring the abolition movement

movement as a struggle against capitalist oppression. Despite this, abolitionists all set the goal of eradicating the slave trade and slavery. Their struggle effectively impacted the slave trade and slavery, so the abolition movement has Positive meaning.

In short, the development of capitalist economy is the fundamental reason for the rise and fall of the slave trade, while the resistance struggle of black slaves and the rise of the abolition movement directly accelerated the slave trade. 's demise. Under the constraints of these factors

it has become a historical necessity for Western countries to propose a ban on the slave trade.