After the Revolution, New England was blamed for the activity of her citizens in this nefarious trade both before and after it was made illegal.

All of this tended to increase the sense of responsibility in every section of the country.

Congress had made the foreign slave-trade illegal; and citizens in all sections gradually became aware of the possibility that Congress might likewise restrict or forbid interstate commerce in slaves.
The West Indies and Mexico were also closely associated with the United States in the matter of slavery.

When Jamestown was founded, negro slavery was already an old institution in the islands of the Caribbean Sea, and thence came the first slaves to Virginia.

The abolition of slavery in the island of Hayti, or San Domingo, was accomplished during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.