1900–1949 edit

Date Jurisdiction Description
1900   Guam Slavery abolished February 22, 1900, by proclamation of Richard P. Leary.[1]
1901   Delaware Thirteenth Amendment ratified.
1902   Cameroon Gradual abolition of slavery.[2]
1903   French Sudan "Slave" no longer used as an administrative category.
1904   United Kingdom
  Germany
  Denmark
  Spain
  France
  Italy
  Netherlands
  Portugal
  Russia
International Agreement for the suppression of the White Slave Traffic signed in Paris. Only France, the Netherlands and Russia extend the treaty to the whole extent of their colonial empires with immediate effect, and Italy extends it to Eritrea but not to Italian Somaliland.[3]
  British East Africa Slavery abolished.[4]
1905   French West Africa Slavery formally abolished. Though up to one million slaves gain their freedom, slavery continues to exist in practice for decades afterward.
1906   China Slavery abolished beginning on 31 January 1910. Adult slaves are converted into hired laborers and the minors freed upon reaching age 25.[5]
  Barotseland Slavery abolished.[6]
1908   Ottoman Empire The Young Turk Revolution eradicates the open trade of Zanj and Circassian women from Constantinople.[7][better source needed]
  Congo Free State Belgium annexes the Congo Free State, ending the practice of slavery there.
1912   Siam Slavery abolished.[8]
1915   British Malaya Slavery abolished.[9]
1917   British Raj Indian indenture system abolished.[10]
1917   Soviet Union Decree Abolishing Classes and Civil Ranks
1918   United States Supreme Court rules in Arver v. United States that the 13th Amendment prohibition against involuntary servitude does not apply to conscription. The government can constitutionally force people to serve in the military against their will.
1919   Tanganyika Slavery abolished.[4]
1922   Morocco Slave trade abolished, slave holding remained legal.[11]
1923   Afghanistan Slavery abolished.[12]
  Florida Convict lease abolished after the death of Martin Tabert, who was whipped for being too ill to work.[citation needed]
  Hong Kong Slavery of Mui tsai abolished.
1924   Iraq Slavery abolished.[citation needed]
  Anglo-Egyptian Sudan Slavery abolished[13]
  League of Nations Temporary Slavery Commission appointed.
  Turkey Slavery abolished[14]
1926     Nepal Slavery abolished.[15]
  League of Nations Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery.
  British Burma Slavery abolished.[9]
  United Kingdom Law of Property Act 1925.
1927   Spain 1926 Slavery Convention ratified.
  United Kingdom
  Nejd
  Hejaz
Treaty of Jeddah (1927) abolishing the slave trade.
1928   Sierra Leone Abolition of domestic slavery practised by local African elites.[16] Although established as a place for freed slaves, a study found practices of domestic slavery still widespread in rural areas in the 1970s.[citation needed]
  Alabama Convict lease abolished, the last state in the Union to do so.
1929   Persia Slavery abolished and criminalized.[17]
1930   League of Nations Forced Labour Convention.
1935   Ethiopia The invading Italian General Emilio De Bono claims to have abolished slavery in the Ethiopian Empire.[18]
  Nazi Germany Nazi Germany legalized forced labor.[19]
1936   Northern Nigeria Slavery abolished.[20]
  Bechuanaland Slavery abolished.[21]
1937   Bahrain Slavery abolished.[22]
1940   United States Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Circular 3591 abolishing all forms of convict leasing.
1945   Nazi Germany Millions of forced labourers and slaves are freed after the fall of the Third Reich; see forced labour under German rule during World War II.
  Japanese Empire Millions of forced labourers and sex slaves are freed after the defeat of the Japanese Empire; see comfort women, rōmusha, East Asia Development Board.
1946   Occupied Germany Fritz Sauckel, Nazi official responsible for procuring forced labor in occupied Europe during World War II, is convicted of crimes against humanity and hanged.[23]
  French Sudan Beginning of large slave defections encouraged by the French Fourth Republic and the Sudanese Union – African Democratic Rally party.
1948   United Nations Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares slavery contrary to human rights.[24]
1949   Kuwait Slavery abolished.[22]
  1. ^ "Affairs in America". CyclopeReview of Current History. 10: 1900. Current History Co: 54. 1901.
  2. ^ "Slavery in Colonial Cameroon, 1880s to 1930s" (PDF).
  3. ^ "University of Minnesota Human Rights Library". hrlibrary.umn.edu. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  4. ^ a b "SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE IN EASTERN AFRICA". ResearchGate.
  5. ^ "Historical survey > Ways of ending slavery". Britannica.com. Retrieved 2013-08-28.
  6. ^ Hogan, Jack (26 August 2014). "The ends of slavery in Barotseland, Western Zambia (c.1800-1925)" – via kar.kent.ac.uk.
  7. ^ Levy, Reuben (1957). The Social Structure of Islam. UK: Cambridge University Press.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference autogenerated61 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ a b "International Abolition and Anti-Slavery Timeline American Abolitionists and Antislavery Activists". www.americanabolitionists.com.
  10. ^ "The legacy of Indian migration to European colonies". The Economist. 2 September 2017. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  11. ^ Goodman, R. David. 2012. “Demystifying ‘Islamic Slavery’: Using Legal Practices to Reconstruct the End of Slavery in Fes, Morocco.” History in Africa 39: 143–74.
  12. ^ "Afghan Constitution: 1923". Afghangovernment.com. Retrieved 2013-08-28.
  13. ^ Department Of State. The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affairs. "Slavery, Abduction and Forced Servitude in Sudan". 2001-2009.state.gov.
  14. ^ Rodriguez, Junius P. (26 March 2015). Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World. ISBN 9781317471790. Retrieved 2019-05-17.
  15. ^ TIMES, Special Cable to THE NEW YORK (30 August 1926). "Slavery in Nepal Is Finally Abolished; More Than 55,000 Are Freed From Bondage" – via NYTimes.com.
  16. ^ The Committee Office, House of Commons (2006-03-06). "House of Commons – International Development – Memoranda". Publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved 2013-08-28.
  17. ^ Law for prohibition of slave trade and liberation of slaves at the point of entry, 1 Iranian National Parliament 7, Page 156 (1929).
  18. ^ Barker, A. J., The Rape of Ethiopia 1936, p. 36
  19. ^ Reichsarbeitsdienstgesetz, 1935
  20. ^ "The End of Slavery". BBC. Retrieved 2013-08-28.
  21. ^ Russell, Margo (1 April 1976). "Slaves or workers? Relations between Bushmen, Tswana, and Boers in the Kalahari". Journal of Southern African Studies. 2 (2): 178–197. doi:10.1080/03057077608707953 – via Taylor and Francis+NEJM.
  22. ^ a b "Key dates in chronology of abolitions". Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  23. ^ "The trial of German major war criminals : proceedings of the International Military Tribunal sitting at Nuremberg Germany". avalon.law.yale.edu. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  24. ^ "Universal Declaration of Human Rights". United Nations. 10 December 1948. Retrieved 13 December 2007. Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948 ... Article 4. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.