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Spain and Portugal begin to bring slaves from West Africa to their American colonies to work, as the native Indians being used for labour were dying from European diseases.
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The very first American slave-for-life was John Punch, a black servant, who was sentenced to serviude for life for trying to runaway.
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In Gloucester County, Virginia the first slave rebellion was planned, but their plot was discovered and the 4 leaders were hanged.
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New York passes The Act for Regulating Slaves which prohibites meetings of more than three slaves; trading by slaves, and testimony by slaves in court.
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The colony of Virginia created a number of laws that stripped Africans of all human rights; identified them as property that could be mortgaged, sold or leased; and forced them into slavery for life.
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Crispus Attucks, an escaped slave, becomes the first Colonial soldier to die for American independence when he is killed by the British in the Boston Massacre.
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The U.S. Congress passed this law where runaway slaves had to be returned to their owners, even if they had escaped to States where blacks were free.
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The Dred Scott case holds that Congress does not have the right to ban slavery in states and, furthermore, that slaves are not citizens.
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Slavery in the United States is effectively ended when 250,000 slaves in Texas finally receive the news that the Civil War had ended.
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Forty African Americans and eight whites are killed in race riots in East St. Louis, Ill., stirred up by white resentment of African Americans working in wartime industry
