In 1774 Rhode Island was the first U.S. state to ban something which is now illegal in all states. What was it?

Rhode Island holds a unique and complex place in the history of the abolition of slavery in America. In 1774, the colony took a groundbreaking step by passing a law that prohibited the importation of enslaved people. This action made it one of the first jurisdictions in North America to legislate against the slave trade, a significant move given that Rhode Island, particularly its port of Newport, had been a major hub for the transatlantic slave trade and had the highest proportion of enslaved people in New England at the time.

The 1774 "Act prohibiting the importation of Negroes into this colony" was a landmark piece of legislation. Introduced by Stephen Hopkins, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the law declared that any enslaved person brought into Rhode Island would be immediately free. While it did not immediately free those already enslaved within the colony, it represented a crucial early effort to curb the institution. This act reflected a growing, albeit often contradictory, abolitionist sentiment, influenced by Quaker communities, even as some of its proponents had direct ties to slaveholding.

This initial prohibition on importation was a precursor to more comprehensive, though gradual, emancipation efforts in Rhode Island. A decade later, the Gradual Emancipation Act of 1784 further advanced the cause, declaring that children born to enslaved mothers after a specific date would be free upon reaching adulthood. These legislative steps, despite their limitations and the continued illicit slave trade by some Rhode Island merchants, marked a significant shift away from a system that would eventually become illegal across all states, fundamentally altering the course of American history.