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the Continental Congress ratifies the Declaration of Independence. It declares: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights. -
under the leadership of Bishop John Wesley, the church decided to denounce slavery and asks the members of the church to release their slave within 12 months. -
On September 17, 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention voted to adopt the Constitution of the United States of America. This is also a part of the "Great compromise". -
The cotton Gin is invented by Eli Whitney that was used to transform the crop cotton into a profitable crop in America, (This also tripled the African slave population) -
Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists win African-American converts by the thousands. Its message of equality before God lends credence to the Abolitionist movement and leads to a coalition between black and white abolitionists. -
Slaves in Haiti, under the leadership of Toussaint L'Ouverture, revolt, kill their masters, and ultimately drive out the French to establish the first independent black republic in the Western hemisphere. -
Richard Allen invites black Methodist church leaders from around the country to meet in Philadelphia to discuss forming a united African Methodist Church. -
The American Colonization Society establishes the Black Republic of Liberia in West Africa. Founded four years earlier by Robert Finley, a white Presbyterian clergyman. -
Denmark Vesey, a 51-year old carpenter and former slave in Charleston, South Carolina, plans a violent revolt to set his people free. Thousands of Charleston blacks are involved, including many members of the First A.M.E. church. -
Four free black women - refugees from Haiti: Elizabeth Lange, Marie Balas, Rosine Boegue, and Almeide Duchemin Maxis, establish the nation's first permanent community of black Catholic nuns in Baltimore, Maryland. -
Nat Turner leads a two-day rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia. Turner claims the spirit of the Old Testament called on him to deliver his people. Joined by over 60 men, Turner kills around 60 whites and destroys 15 homesteads. -
Divided by the issue of slavery, the Presbyterian Church splits along regional lines. The southern and northern branches of the church remain apart until 1983. -
The Methodist church splits into Northern and Southern congregations after argument over whether members should be allowed to own slaves. -
Frederick Douglass, a leading black abolitionist, publishes the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: an American Slave. Douglass had been born into slavery in 1818 in Maryland. -
Born into slavery in 1797 in Kingston, New York, Sojourner Truth, known then as Isabella, is taught that slavery is part of God's natural order. Isabella accepts this until the age of 30, when she hears the voice of God instructing her to set out on her own as a free woman. In 1843, Isabella takes the name Sojourner Truth, and travels the country preaching abolition, women's suffrage, and the Gospel. -
Rising conflict among northern and southern states over slavery the Civil War. Black enlistment is initially rebuffed by the Union army, because of concerns that their participation will weaken Northern support for the war. Black politicians like Frederick Douglass, joined by pastors like Henry McNeal Turner, lobby passionately for black enlistment