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Africans bought to Jamestown (Virginia) are the first slaves imported into Britain's North American colonies. They were kidnapped by the Portuguese, arrived in the British colony of Virginia and then are bought by English colonists. The arrival of the enslaved Africans in the New World marks the beginning of two and a half centuries of slavery in North America. -
Virginia law decrees that children of black mothers "shall be bond or free according to the condition of the mother." Enslaved Africans are codified as property when Virginia law allows owners to bequeath slaves. They cannot legally marry, own property, vote, serve as witnesses or make contracts. -
Anthony Benezet of Philadelphia founds the world's first abolitionist society. Benjamin Franklin becomes its president in 1787. In 1763, Franklin wrote that African shortcomings and ignorance were not inherently natural but come from lack of education, slavery and negative environments. He also wrote that he saw no difference in learning between African and white children. -
First United States Census nearly 700,000 slaves live and toil in a nation of 3.9 million people. It had equated to approximately 18 per cent of the total population or roughly one in every six people. The census categorized the population of the new nation according to liberty, sex and age: free white males aged 16 and older, free white males under age 16, free white females, all other free people and slaves. -
The United States Bans Slave Trade. Importing African slaves is outlawed, but smuggling continues. Great Britain also banned the African slave trade in 1807, but the trade of African captives to Brazil and Cuba continued until the 1860s. -
The United States Supreme Court decides, seven to two, that blacks can never be citizens and that Congress has no authority to outlaw slavery in any territory. It was for people of African descent, regardless of whether they were enslaved or free. -
United States Civil War lasted four years of brutal conflict claim 623,000 lives. One reason the war lasted so long was because of the clever military tactics and strategies. It started in 1861 and finished in 1865. -
President Abraham Lincoln decrees that all slaves in Rebel territory are free on January 1, 1863. As the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." -
The 13th Amendment states: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."