In a bold effort to end piracy and the illegal slave trade, the U.S. Congress adopted An Act to Protect the Commerce of the United States and Punish the Crime of Piracy, in May 1820. It explicitly spelled out that the crime of piracy and the slave trade shall be punishable by death. It also stated that any person of any nation, any U.S. citizen on a foreign ship, or any U.S. citizen on a U.S.-owned ship engaged in piracy or the slave trade will be held accountable under this law, adjudged a pirate, and “on conviction … shall suffer death.” Image courtesy Toni L. Carrell, The Search for Trouvadore 2008, NOAA-OER.
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The Search for Trouvadore 2008
