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The first record of African American slavery in English Colonial America
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The Virginia Slave Codes
Defined slaves as all servants brought into the colony who were not Christian in their countries of origin in addition to Indians who were sold to colonists by other Indians. -
Fugitive Slave Act of 1793
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was written as a way to ensure that slaveowners could recover their slaves in any U.S. state. -
The slave trade in the United States is banned
The importation of slaves into the United States is banned. In addition, this is the earliest day under the United States Constitution that an amendment could be made restricting slavery. -
Harriet Beecher Stowe pubishes "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" became the most powerful of all abolitionist propaganda, bringing its message to a large new audience and inflaming the sectional tensions. Selling more than 300,000 copies within the first year, Harriet Beecher Stowe became reviled in the South while becoming a hero in the North. -
Bleeding Kansas
Guerilla warfare over the question as to whether or not Kansas would be admitted as a slave state or as a free state. Bleeding Kansas symbolizes the sectionalism that was present in the United States: North versus South. This effectively brought the question of slavery to the forefront of the political scene. -
the Emancipation Proclamation
Issued by President Abraham Lincoln, the Emancipation Proclamation declared the freedom of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America that did not return to the Union by January 1, 1863. -
the 13th Amendment
the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolishes slavery in the United States. -
Civil Rights Act of 1866
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 declares that all people born in the United States are now citizens. Vetoed by Presient Johnson, it was passed by Congress. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
The Supreme Court upholds racial segregation with its "separate but equal" ruling.