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By the first quarter of the nineteenth century, most European and American nations had officially recognized the barbaric nature of the African slave trade, and had signed treaties in support of its elimination. The economic incentives that created and supported the trade  persisted, however, and in fact dramatically increased. For the next fifty years, tens of thousands of Africans continued to be kidnapped and smuggled to the Americas every year.

Until the1850’s, the British Royal Navy labored virtually alone to interdict slaving vessels and stop the flow of human cargo. In spite of their efforts, Africans were still being kidnapped and smuggled out in increasing numbers to satisfy a seemingly insatiable need for laborers in the plantation economies of the Americas. The vast majority went to Brazil and Cuba, where sugar plantations were booming, but many were still being smuggled into the Southern States. Many former American slave traders took their ships to Cuba and continued to  operate under the protection of Spanish registry.

About this same time, restrictions on trade between Spain and the Americas was lifted, and a great many Catalan Spanish entrepreneurs entered the lucrative slave trade, or started sugar plantations and rum factories in Cuba. Vast fortunes were made and titles were purchased by these families, some of whom today are the wealthiest in the world.

Abolitionists in the U.S., Spain, Great Britain, and elsewhere where beginning to  have an impact on their governments’ enforcement policies, which until then, were very lax or non-existent. Although recalled after a few years for his unpopular stance, the Spanish Intendant in Havana in the early 1840s had a policy of strict adherence to the provisions of the Anti-Slave Trading treaties.

A half-dozen U.S. Navy ships eventually joined the British interdiction fleet off the coast of Africa. While still refusing to allow foreigners to board ships with American registry, the U.S. and other countries began to participate in international tribunals to try smuggling cases. Spain finally started pressing its colonies to develop a substitute labor system, and other European countries followed suit. Portugal, which had been the first country to enter the African slave trade, was the last country to sign the slave-trade treaties, and was the last country to actively enforce the ban.

By the 1860’s it was becoming riskier and less profitable for ships owners to engage in the slave trade. With the abolition of slavery in the U.S. after the end of the American civil war there were few viable markets left. For the first time, an American Captain was tried and convicted of a capital crime related to the trade. The last known African slave trader was captured by the Royal Navy in 1871.