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AMERICAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
Shortly after the British flee from Boston, the Continental Congress created a committee to write a declaration of independence. Thomas Jefferson, the youngest of the committee, was put in charge of drafting the document. Jefferson’s simple explanation argued that everyone was born equal in the eyes of god, and therefore had the same rights.
He also argued that King George III was “unfit to be the ruler of a free people” because he had committed so. -
BLACK LOYALISTS FROM AMERICAN REVOLUTION MIGRATE TO CANADA
During the period 1628 – the early 1800s, Blacks lived as slaves in Canada, especially in Eastern Canada, in New France where 1000 Black slaves worked mostly as household servants, as the Canadian climate did not permit large scale plantation crops. Another 2000 enslaved Blacks came to Canada as slaves of White (United Empire) Loyalists who immigrated with them from the United States of America after the American Revolution (1775-1783). In the late 1700s Canada became home to about 3500 Black Lo -
THE SOCIETY FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE FOUNDED IN BRITAIN
On 22 May 1787, 12 men met to form a committee with the
express purpose of ending the slave trade. Nine of the 12
were Quakers, but it was two Anglicans, Granville Sharp
and Thomas Clarkson, who were chosen as president and
secretary of the committee respectively.
The pairing of Quakers with respected Anglicans allowed
the matching of different resources and skills which were
vital to the success of the campaign. -
ACt AGAINST SLAVERY IN ONTARIO
Inspired by the abolitionist sentiment emerging in the late 18th century, Lieutenant-Governor J.G. Simcoe made Upper Canada the first British territory to legislate against slavery, which had defined the conditions of life for most people of African ancestry in Canada since the early 17th century. The Act of 1793 did not free a single slave, but prevented their importation and freed the future children of slaves at age twenty-five. -
BITAIN ABOLISHES THE SLAVE TRADE
In 1807, the abolitionists persuaded the British Parliament to pass the "Abolition Of The Slave Trade Act". This banned trade in African peoples throughout the British Empire.It didn't ban slavery itself, but British sea captains who violated the law faced fines for every captive found onboard their ships.
To enforce the new law, the British Royal Navy formed the West Africsn anti-slavery squadron. This act influenced countries like United States, Netherland and Spain to pass the similar law. -
UNITED STATES ABOPLISHES TRADE IN AFRICAN PEOPLES
After the war, as slave labor was not a crucial element of the Northern economy, most Northern states passed legislation to abolish slavery. However, in the South, the invention of the cotton gin in 1793 made cotton a major industry and sharply increased the need for slave labor. Tension arose between the North and the South as the slave or free status of new states was debated. In January 1807, with a self-sustaining population of over four million slaves in the South, some Southern congressmen -
BLACK REFUGEES FROM WAR OF 1812 MIGRATE TO CANADA
Black American immigration to Canada alsooccurred during the War of 1812 between Britain and |United States. In April 1814, the commander of the British navy made an offer any resident of United States who vvolunteered to fight on the British side would be transported to and British colony free of charge after the war. The offer was aimed at Black Americans. Many of them accepted the offer and more than 3500 enslaved Blacks had gained their freedom fighting for Britain. -
PEAK OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
The underground railroad was a network of people working secretly to help enslaved Blacks from the American South escape to freedom. Many of the conductors who led the escapees were fugitives themselves including Harriet Tubman. She was the most famous conductor of all. This network successfully confronted slavery without resorting toviolence through the cooperative effort of a losely organized grou of people of different cultures and religions. A least 100,000 Blacks escaped via the undergroun -
SLAVERY ABOLISHED THROUGHOUT THE BRITISH EMPIRE: AMERICA ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY FORMED
The British Parliament’s Factory Act of 1833 establishes a normal working day in textile manufacture. The act bans the employment of children under the age of 9 and limits the workday of children between the ages of 13 and 18 to 12 hours. The law also provides for government inspection of working conditions. In Britain the Abolition Act of 1833 abolishes slavery throughout the British Empire, including its colonies in North America. The bill emancipates the slaves in all British colonies. -
US CIVIL WAR
By 1860, political tensions between North and South had reached the breaking poit. During the federal election, there were heated debates over the extension of slavery. An Illinois politician named Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the U.S.A. He was not an abolitionist, but he believed that slavey had to be destroyed before it dsetroyed the American Union.The Southerners argued the American government to allow slavery to exist in peace, but the Northerners demanded that the American not. -
EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION GETTYSBURG ADDRESS
During the first year, the Unoin army had limited success against the Confederate States. Lincoln decide it was time to take bold action. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which held the promise of freedom for the 3 million enslaved Blacks living in the south. Southern leaders denounced Lincoln for his proclamation. Abolitionists and Black American leaders praised him and supported the civil war as means of reuniting the country. -
THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT(SLAVERY ABOLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES: ABRAHAM LINCOLN IS ASSASSINATED: FREEDMEN'S BUREAU
Slavery was finally abolished on December 18, 1865. Then the period known as Reconstruction began. To be readmitted to the Union, the Confederate Statea had to darft new constitutions guaranteeing the right to vote to fromer enslaved Black males. Then the federal government began the task of helping Black Americans make the transition into a free society.With the end of slavery, the plantation economy collasped. The Freemen's Bureau was created to help Black people find jobs and housing. -
FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT
The 14th Amendment overruled Dred Scott v. Sanford. It guaranteed that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside, and that no state shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens, deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person the equal protection of the law. -
FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT: TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE(BOOKER T. WASHINGTON)
The national and state governments cannot use peoples’ race to stop them from voting. This amendment gave black men the right to vote, ensuring greater equality and justice for American people and their political rights. The first African-American senator. Hiram R. Revels (Republican) of Mississippi took his seat February 25. He was the first black United States senator, though he served only one year. -
PLESSY VS FERGUSON(JIM CROW/SEPARATE BUT EQUAL
Decided May 18, 1896,Plessy vs Ferguson was a decision in the jurisprudence of the United States, upholding the constitutionality of State Laws requring racial Segregation in public facilities under the doctrin of "seperate but Equal" -
CREATION OF NAACP (W.E.B. DUBOIS)
The National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) is founded with the
intent of eliminating lynching and fighting racial
segregation and injustice. When W.E.B. Du Bois was a college student he observed racism and it made him want to do something about it. On the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birthday, February 12, 1909, 60 black and white citizens, including Du Bois, formed the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. -
JACKIE ROBISON BREAKS COLOUR BARRIER IN MLB
1947 Jackie Robinson is the first African American to play Major League baseball. this a significant event because Robinson broke a colour barrier which allowed more blacks to play in major baseball league. -
BROWN VS BOARD OF EDUCATION
Decided on May 17, 1954. Brown vs Board was a casein which the court declared state laws establishing seperate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The deciscion overturned the Plessy Vs Ferguson deciscion on 1896 which allowed State-sponsored segregation. -
EMMETT TILL IS MURDERED: ROSA PARKS AND THE MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT
Emmet Till was an African American boy who was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white Woman. The campain lasted from December 1, 1955 when Rosak Parks, an African American woman, refused to surrender her seat to a white person on the bus and was arrested. The federal ruling of Browder vs Gale took in effect and declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws requring segregated buses to be unconstitutional. This was the end of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. -
SOUTH CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE(SNCC) IS FOUNDED: CRISIS AT CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL AND THE LITTLE ROCK NINE
Little Rock Nine were a group of African American Students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The Little Rock crisis in which the students were initially prevented from entering racially segregated school by Governor Faubus and attented after the intervention President Eisenhower. Founded in January 10, 1957. The SCLC main aim was to advance the cause of Civil Rights in America but in a non-violent manner. -
GREENSBORO SIT-INS: STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTE(SNCC) IS FOUNDED
Greensboro Sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests in 1960 which led tothe Woolworth's department store chain reversing its policy of racial segregation in the Southern United States.
Started by group of black college students, SNCC was founded and was used to coordinate sit-ins, support their leaders, and publicize their activities. Their main goal was to fight white oppression. -
FREEDOM RIDES:HALIFAX TEARS DOWN AFRICVILLE
In Nova Scotia, the community of Africville was poorly treated by the city of Halifax. It became the dumping ground for unwanted facilities other Halifax neighbourhoods reject. The residents of Africville were mistreated in other ways. They paid taxes to the city of Halifax, but they received little in return. In 1960, they still had no running water, no roads, and no electricity. Finally, in 1961 the city decided to tear down Africville as part of an "urban renewal" plan.Africville was expropri -
TWENTY FOURTH AMENDMENT "POLL TAX ABOLISHED": CIVIL RIGHT ACT 1964 PASSED: MISSISSIPPI SUMMER PROJECT (FREEDOM SUMMER): THREE CIVIL-RIGHTS WORKERS MURDERED IN MISSISSIPPI
They were arrested for speeding charges incarcerated for several hours, and then released after dark into the hands of the Ku Klux Klan, who murdered them.President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin. The law also provides the federal government with the powers to enforce desegregation.The 24th Amendment abolishes -
VOTING RIGHTS ACT 1965 PASSED: SELMAN TO MONTGOMERY MARCH: MALCOLM X SHOT TO DEATH: WATTS RIOT (LOS AN GELAS)
TimelineCongress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it easier for Southern blacks to register to vote. Literacy tests, poll taxes, and other such requirements that were used to restrict black voting are made illegal.The Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement.Malcolm X, black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, is shot to death. -
MLK ASSSASSINATED: CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1968 PASSED
At 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was hit by a sniper's bullet. King had been standing on the balcony in front of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968. This act provided equal housing opportunities regardless of race, creed, or national origin.
