1807
Britain Abolishes Slave Trade
After twenty years of Wilberforce's sermons and Clarkson's evidence, Parliament made trading in enslaved human beings a crime for British subjects. Slavery itself would survive in the colonies for another generation, but the Royal Navy now cruised the Atlantic stopping slavers - a moral navy, and a useful one. The West Africa Squadron, tasked with enforcement, freed approximately 150,000 captives from slave ships over the next six decades.
Fulton's Steamboat Clermont
Robert Fulton's ungainly vessel wheezed up the Hudson from New York to Albany in thirty-two hours, against the current, on nothing but wood and water. Skeptics had called it Fulton's Folly. They stopped. The rivers of America were suddenly two-way streets, and the age of steam navigation had its public birth.
Portuguese Court Flees to Brazil
With French armies closing on Lisbon, the Braganza royal family and fifteen thousand courtiers sailed under British escort for Rio de Janeiro. It was the only time a European monarchy ruled from its colony. Brazil, suddenly the seat of empire, acquired a printing press, a library, and ideas it could not un-learn.
Treaty of Tilsit
On a raft in the middle of the Niemen River, Napoleon and Tsar Alexander embraced and divided Europe. Prussia was halved; the Duchy of Warsaw resurrected Poland in miniature. For five years the two emperors would pretend to be friends, and the world would hold its breath between them. Their alliance collapsed over the Continental System, and within five years Napoleon would march into Russia with 600,000 men.
Eylau
In a snowstorm on the East Prussian plains, Napoleon fought the Russians and Prussians to a bloody standstill. Murat's heavy cavalry charged into the blizzard and saved the center. When the sun rose over frozen corpses, neither side had won. It was the first battle Napoleon had not decisively won, and a taste of things to come.
Jefferson's Embargo
Trying to coerce Britain and France by denying them American trade, Jefferson pushed the Embargo Act through Congress. It failed spectacularly: New England merchants were ruined, smuggling flourished, and the British barely noticed. Jefferson himself called it "little short of ruin" before lifting it two years later. A lesson in the limits of economic warfare.
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Frequently asked
What happened in the year 1807?
Saeculum lists 6 curated events from 1807. The most significant is Britain Abolishes Slave Trade: After twenty years of Wilberforce's sermons and Clarkson's evidence, Parliament made trading in enslaved human beings a crime for British subjects.
What era was 1807 part of?
1807 falls within the Industrial Age (1801-1900). Steam, empire, and the unmaking of the old order.
Which regions saw notable events in 1807?
The curated events from 1807 span Europe, North America and South America.