Denmark was the first European country to ban the slave trade, in 1792, which took effect in 1803. On 22 February 1807, the work of William Wilberforce was rewarded with victory. By an overwhelming 283 votes for to 16 against, the motion for the Slave Trade Act to abolish the Atlantic slave trade was carried in the House of Commons. The United States abolished it later that year. The Royal Navy set up a Blockade of Africa to stop the trade, and treaties with other nations allowed the blockade ships to stop their slave trade. However, smuggling of slaves was very common and hundreds of thousands of black people were enslaved illegally. New York City was a center for this illegal slave trade, and judges in New York avoided punishing slave traders through the 19th century. Many slaves continued to be sent to Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico and Cuba as well as much of South America.