## Gradual abolition in North America  
The abolition of the slave trade from Africa was the first of the many steps that led to emancipation in the Americas. The first measures to prohibit imports of enslaved Africans to the thirteen British colonies in North America were  
introduced in the first half of the eighteenth century and were motivated by the fear of slave insurrections led by newly arrived enslaved Africans.  
In 1776, the independence of the British Thirteen Colonies that became the United States broke ground for the gradual abolition of slavery in the United States. Led by Creole elites, independence movements were not devised, either in the United States or in other parts of the Americas, to emancipate the enslaved population, especially in the regions where the institution of slavery was central to the economy. Even in the areas where bondage was not dominant, slave owners opposed the emancipation, leaving the enslaved population to face the long path of gradual abolition.  
The American Revolutionary War fuelled anti-slavery discourses and the early abolitionist movement. Enslaved men and women actively participated in this process by petitioning their masters to obtain freedom and in some cases rewards for past services (Sinha, 2016, pp. 41-44; Araújo, 2017, pp. 49-51). After the end of the war and with the rise of the French Revolution in 1789, anti-slavery activity spread in Europe and the United States. This new context opened the path for the passage of gradual emancipation legislation.