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"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by thier Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
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Vermont becomes the first U.S territory to abolish slavery.
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Pennsylvania becomes the first U.S. state to gradually abolish slavery. Slave children born after November 1, 1780 will be free on their 28th birthday.
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Northwest Ordinance prohibits slavery except as criminal punishment, in the Northwest Territory. (The territory later became Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.)
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As part th ratified United States Constituion, three-fifths of all slaves will be counted as people for representation and taxation purposes.
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The First Fugitive Slave Law is passed, allowing slave owners to cross state lines in the pursuit of fugitives and making it a punishable offense to assist runaway slaves.
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New Jersey passes gradual emancipation law. It becomes the final Northern state to pass a law that either forbids slavery or requires its gradual elimination.
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An act of Congress bans the importation of slaves ending involvemnet in the international slave trade.
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The Missouri Compromise forbids slavery in the Louisiana terrotory north of Missouri's Southern border. Under its terms, Maine is admitted to the Union as a free state and Missouri as a slave state.
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Nat Turner, an enslaved Baptist preacher believing himslef divinely insired, leads a violent rebellion in Southhampton, Virginia. At least 57 whites are killed
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Africans aboard Spanish slave ship Amistad commit mutiny. When the ship is captured off the coast of Long Island, the slave plea for freedom in court the following year.
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Africans aboard Spanish slave ship Amistad commit mutiny. When the ship is captured off the coast of Long Island, the slave plea for freedom in court the following year.
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The Compromise of 1850 admits California to the Union as a free state, allows the slave states of New Mexico and Utah to be decided by popular sovereignty, and bans the slave trade in Washington D.C. The Compromise of 1850 includes The Second Fugitive Slave Act which requires citizens to assit in the recovery of fugitive slaves and denies fugitive slaves's right to a jury trail. As a result, the rights of slave owners are strengthened and the rights of free blacks are threatened.
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The Kansas-Nebraska Act creates the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and allows popular sovereignty to decide the slave status of each. It also repeals the anti-slavery clause of the Missouri Compromise.
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The U.S Supreme Court ruling in Dred Scott v.Sanford denies citizenship to all slaves, ex-slaves, and descendants of slaves and denies Congress the right to prohibit slavery in the territories.
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A group of whites and blacks, led by John Brown, conducts an unsuccessful raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in an attempt to undermine slavery in the South.
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Kansas enters the Union as a free state.
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Congress abolishes slavery in Washington with the District of Columbia Emancipation Act. Slave owners who pledge loyalty to the Union receive compensation for freeing their slaves.
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President Lincoln reads a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to the Cabinet.
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President Lincoln issues the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all enslaved individuals in rebel-controlled areas of the Confederacy January 1, 1863.
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President Lincoln issues the final version of the Emancipation Proclamation. He calls emancipation "an act of justice" and a "military necessity."
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West Virginia is admitted as a free state. As part of its state constitution, slaves receive freedom at the age of twenty-one.
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The Union decisively wins the Battle of Gettysburg,ending Confederate general Robert E.Lee's invasion of the North.
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After the Battle of Gettysburgh, Lincoln delivers the Gettysburgh Address, often called his most famous speech. He urges the NOrth to continue to fight for freedom and equality, important principles of the Declaration of Independence. Lincoln states that "[the] government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
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The 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolishes alvery throughout the United States , freeing almost 4 million enslaved individuals.
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The 14th Amendment to the Constitution defines a citizen as anyone born in the United States (except Native Americans) or naturalized, thereby extending all rights of citizenship to African Americans.
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The 15th Amendmentt to the Constitution protects African American from racial discrimination in voting.
