Early American discrimination timeline

  • Massacre at mystic

    Massacre at mystic

    English colonists and their Narragansett and Mohegan allies set the fort ablaze, blocked the exits, and killed most of the Pequot inhabitants, resulting in a large number of deaths and a significant blow to the Pequot tribe.
  • The scalp act

    The scalp act

    significantly increasing the practice of scalping as a violent means of warfare, control, and economic gain, particularly in North America. These laws provided financial rewards for scalps, fundamentally altering Indigenous warfare traditions and contributing to widespread conflict and the extermination of Native population.
  • The 3/5ths compromise

    The 3/5ths compromise

    an agreement made at the 1787 Constitutional Convention that determined three-fifths of the enslaved population in a state would be counted for purposes of taxation and apportioning representation in the House of Representatives
  • Battle of tippecanoe

    Battle of tippecanoe

    when American forces led by William Henry Harrison clashed with Native American warriors associated with the Shawnee leader Tecumseh and his brother, Tenskwatawa (The Prophet).
  • The Missouri compromise

    The Missouri compromise

    admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, maintaining a balance in Congress between slave and free states, and also prohibited slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of the 36°30′ parallel
  • Indian removal act

    Indian removal act

    authorized the President to negotiate removal treaties with Native American tribes for lands west of the Mississippi River, in exchange for their ancestral lands east of the river.
  • Trials of tears

    Trials of tears

    Between 1830 and 1850, about 100,000 American Indians living between Michigan, Louisiana, and Florida moved west after the U.S. government coerced treaties or used the U.S. Army against those resisting. Many were treated brutally. An estimated 3,500 Creeks died in Alabama and on their westward journey
  • Nat turner rebellion

    Nat turner rebellion

    The rebellion resulted in even harsher restrictions on enslaved people and contributed to the growing tensions that led to the Civil War.
  • The fugitive slave act

    The fugitive slave act

    two federal laws passed in 1793 and 1850 that allowed slave owners to reclaim runaway slaves who had escaped into other states
  • Dried Scott decision

    Dried Scott decision

    the Supreme Court upheld slavery in United States territories, denied the legality of black citizenship in America, and declared the Missouri compromise to be unconstitutional
  • Emancipation proclamation

    Emancipation proclamation

    The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the Civil War, which declared that all enslaved people in Confederate states that were still in rebellion against the United States were to be free.
  • 13th amendment

    13th amendment

    abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime for which a person has been convicted.
  • Slave trade ends in the untied states

    Slave trade ends in the untied states

    The Atlantic slave trade to the United States was effectively stopped by the Union naval blockade and the 1862 hanging of Captain Nathaniel Gordon for piracy, but the institution of slavery itself was only fully abolished nationwide with the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in December 1865, following the end of the Civil War.
  • 14th amendment

    14th amendment

    granted citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the U.S., including formerly enslaved people, and prohibited states from denying any person due process of law or the equal protection of the laws.
  • 15th amendment

    15th amendment

    prohibits denying or abridging the right to vote based on a citizen's race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
  • Battle of the Little Bighorn

    Battle of the Little Bighorn

    The battle was a momentary victory for the Lakota and Cheyenne. The death of Custer and his troops became a rallying point for the United States to increase their efforts to force native peoples onto reservation lands.
  • Please vs Ferguson

    Please vs Ferguson

    an 1896 Supreme Court case that established the controversial "separate but equal" doctrine, which permitted racial segregation under the guise of providing equal accommodations for different races.
  • Battle of wounded knee

    Battle of wounded knee

    The town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota was seized on February 27, 1973, by followers of the American Indian Movement (AIM), who staged a 71-day occupation of the area. In response to the incident, Marshals Service volunteers stepped forward from all ranks of service to assist in a resolution.