1807

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This article is about the year 1807 Please help improve this article by conforming to date guidelines and by adding citations to reliable sources.

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Events

• March 2 – President Thomas Jefferson, who had promoted the legislation, signed into law a bill approved by the Congress "An Act to prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States" as of January 1, 1808, the earliest date permitted by the Constitution, (hereinafter in this Act referred to as the "1808 Transatlantic Slave Trade Act") and made it unlawful "to import or bring into the United States or territories thereof from any foreign kingdom, place or country, any negro, mulatto, or person of colour, with intent to hold, sell, or dispose of such as a slave, or to be held to service or labour"

• Regarded as necessary accompaniments of the courthouse and court proceedings, order was given to repair the pillory, stocks and whipping post in the public square.

• August 3 to September 1 – Aaron Burr Treason Trial of 1807. Arron Burr was brought to trial on a charge of "treason" before the United States Circuit court at Richmond. George Hay, William Wirt, and Gordon MacRae formed the team of prosecutors for the government at trial. Charge against Burr, former vice-president serving during President Thomas Jefferson's first term, was "Treason" against the United States within the meaning of Article Ill, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution; Given that Jefferson was using his influence as president in an effort to obtain a conviction, the trial was a major test of the Constitution and the concept of separation of powers. Verdict: Not guilty.

Deaths

• February 6 – John Harvie, born in Albemarle County in 1742, member of the Continental Congress and mayor of Richmond, Virginia from 1785 to 1786. As a boy, Harvie was a close friend of Thomas Jefferson, and his father became Jefferson's legal guardian after his cousin Peter Jefferson died in 1757.