africans who had been captured and sent to the french colony of saint domingue on slave ships played an important role in ending the atlantic slave trade. they began the haitian revolution, which created haiti, the first country to permanently ban slavery. after this revolution, european empires began to reduce slave trading and abolitionism became more popular. between 1808 and 1860, the british navy captured approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 africans who were aboard.