# Anglo-Dutch Slave Trade Treaty (4 May 1818)

URL: https://allhistories.com/suriname/timeline/1818-anglo-dutch-slave-trade-treaty
Location: The Hague, Netherlands
Themes: main-event

The Anglo-Dutch Slave Trade Treaty was signed in The Hague on 4 May 1818. Each navy could inspect the other's ships suspected of carrying enslaved people, and crews could be brought before a Mixed Commission Court. Two courts were set up, one in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and one in Paramaribo. The treaty was amended by agreements in 1822, 1823, 1837 and 1848, which widened the powers of inspection. It made the Dutch ban on the trade enforceable at sea. Suriname had a role as a place where captured vessels might be tried, though few cases were brought there. The treaty reflects British pressure and the Dutch decision to follow it. It did not free anyone already enslaved in Suriname, and slavery there continued for decades. Its main effect was to make the 1814 ban credible and to create a legal and diplomatic structure against the Atlantic trade.

## Why it matters
The 1818 treaty gave the slave trade ban practical enforcement, with a court at Paramaribo.

Ruler at the Time: [Cornelis Vaillant](https://allhistories.com/suriname/rulers/cornelis-vaillant)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Anglo-Dutch Slave Trade Treaty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Dutch_Slave_Trade_Treaty)
- [Wikipedia — History of slavery in the Netherlands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_Netherlands)