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Maryland Passes First Law Banning Interracial Marriage
On September 20 1664, Maryland passed the first antiamalgamation law. This was intended to prevent English women from marrying African men. Interracial marriage was a fairly common practice during the colonial era among white indentured servants and black slaves-as well as in more aristocratic circles. -
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Old Salem
Enslaved, and some free, African Americans lived in Salem from the early years of its founding in 1766. Eventually, there were brick makers, potters, blacksmiths, coopers, carpenters, road builders, domestic workers, teamsters, and farmers, both Africans and African Americans, living and working in and around the church town.Several African Americans converted to Christianity and were baptized into the Moravian Church. -
Freedom's Journal
Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm publish Freedom's Journal, the first African American newspaper in America, from March 16, 1827-March 28, 1829 -
Nat Turner Slave Revolt
In late summer 1831 a free man of color named Billy Artis, a celebrated slave known as "Gen. Nelson," and a slave preacher by the name of Nat Turner helped lead an insurrection of slaves seeking freedom in Southamption County, Va. -
Amistad Case
Slaves being transported aboard the Spanish ship Amistad take it over and sail it to Long Island. They eventually win their freedom in a Supreme Court case. -
The compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was actually a series of bills passed mainly to address issues related to slavery. The bills provided for slavery to be decided by popular sovereignty in the admission of new states, prohibited the slave trade in the District of Columbia, settled a Texas boundary dispute, and established a stricter fugitive slave act. This featured document is Henry Clay's handwritten draft. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin Published
Angered by the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes the first of 41 installments of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in an abolitionist weekly, June 5, 1851. She intends her novel about slaves Uncle Tom, who is sold and resold, and Eliza, who flees to save her child, to “awaken sympathy” for those suffering under a “cruel and unjust” system. -
The Emancipation Proclamation,
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Preliminary Emanicipation Proclamation in the midst of the Civil War, announcing on September 22, 1862, that if the rebels did not end the fighting and rejoin the Union by January 1, 1863, all slaves in the rebellious states would be free. Since the Ceonfederacy did not respond, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 -
First African American Elected Official In Michigan
In 1868, the same year the state rejected the 15th Amendment giving blacks the right to vote, Dawson Pompey became the first African American to hold elective office in Michigan when Covert residents chose him to oversee local road projects. Source : Zlati Meyer, "Rural west Michigan Covert Township Integrated Quietly in the 1860s", Detroit Free Press, September 5, 2011 -
Civil Right Cases
On the whole, we are of opinion that no countenance of authority for the passage of the law in question can be found in either the thirteenth or fourteenth amendment of the constitution; and no other ground of authority for its passage being suggested, it must necessarily be declared void, at least so far as its operation in the several states is concerned.” -
Jesse Owens Wins Four Gold Medals at Berlin Olympics
On August 3, 1936, at the Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany, Jesse Owens won the 100-meter sprint, capturing his first of four gold medals. Over the next six days, Owens won Olympic gold in the 200-meter dash, the broad jump, and the 400-meter relay.
