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Gabriel Prosser's attempt to lead a slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia is suppressed. For this reason he and 25 other enslaved blacks got hanged.
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The importation of slaves into the United States is banned; this is also the earliest day under the United States Constitution that an amendment could be made restricting slavery.
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The Missouri Compromise allows for the entry as states of Maine and Missouri, and decides which future states slavery would be allowed in.
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Denmark Vesey's slave rebellion in Charleston, South Carolina is suppressed. The word that he was doing a rebellion spread and he was arrested.
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David Walker begins publication of the abolitionist pamphlet Walker's Appeal.
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Nat Turner leads the most successful slave rebellion in U.S. history. The rebellion is suppressed, but only after many deaths.
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Slaves revolt on the La Amistad, resulting in a Supreme Court case. The ensuing, widely publicized court cases in the United States helped the abolitionist movement.
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As part of the Compromise of 1850, Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 which requires any federal official to arrest anyone suspected of being a runaway slave.
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Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is published. This book was a huge controversy to slavery.
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In Dred Scott v. Sandford, the Supreme Court upholds slavery. This decision is regarded as a key cause of the American Civil War.
