Southern Tennessee - Nine (9) Black American youths rode a freight train with several white males and two white women. Near the Lookout Mountain tunnel, a fight erupted between the white and Black American youths.
The whites got kicked off the train. They went to a sheriff, from the nearby town, Paint Rock, Alabama.
The white youths claimed the Black youths assaulted them on the train. The sheriff raised a posse. He ordered the posse to search for and 'capture every Negro on the train.'
All Black American passengers from the train were arrested. All were charged with assault, by the posse.
The Scottsboro boys were put on trial. It was an all-white jury, white judge, and white prosecutor. 8 of the youths were convicted. They were sentenced to death.
As a result of appeals to the United States Supreme Court, none were executed. The Court ruled that race could not be used to exclude a juror.
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London, England - The Parliament of the United Kingdom passed An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. This Act ended the Transatlantic Slave Trade, by law, in the United Kingdom.
Great Britain stopped slavery, in 1772, in the country. It was due to a ruling from Somerset's Case, of that year. It was ruled that slavery had no place on English soil. This had no effect on slavery in the British colonies. The law that barred it in the colonies came later, in 1833.
After the United States formed, the African slave trade became less profitable for Britain. Its slave sugar colonies in the Caribbean needed lots of support. Sugar competition, from Spanish Cuba and Portuguese Brazil hurt. Add to that, Britain needed its navy for its India colonies.
British-made sugar was a costly effort. Instead, Britain found that trade, with Portugal and Spain, for their sugar was better. British finished goods were sent to pay for the sugar. This led to more profit for Britain. At the same time, Napoleon saw how it helped Britain. He wanted it stopped. Britain also controlled sugar refining. Napoleon wanted that too.
The demands on the navy, by Britain, were many. There were the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). Britain wanted to protect its India project. The navy, of Britain, had to secure trade routes with Cuban and Brazilian slave colonies. African slave trading was more trouble than it was worth by 1807. So, it was stopped, by law.
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