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Jan 1, 1500
European Explorers bring slaves to the Americas
The 16th-18th centuries brought enormous changes to the North American continent. European explorers not only traveled to the Americas and settled, they also traveled to Africa, where they began a trans-Atlantic slave trade that brought millions of Africans to the Americas as well. This slave trade would over time lead to a new social and economic system: one where the color of one's skin could determine whether he or she might live as a free citizen or be enslaved for life. -
Period: Jan 1, 1500 to
Injustice and Inequality
The first slaves were brought to the Americas in the 1500's.
In 1981 the last coutry banned slavery. -
Cotton Gin is invented in the U.S.
In April 1793, Eli Whitney had designed and constructed the cotton gin, a machine that automated the separation of cottonseed from the short-staple cotton fiber. Farming cotton required hundreds of man-hours but thanks to his machine, working went much faster. This was a great impact on society, not only in a positive way, but also in a negative one. Now because less slaves needed to work on the cotton fields, more slaves were needed to work on the tobacco and rice plantations. -
Slavery Ends in Great Britian
Slavery in Great Britain and the British Empire started in the mid 17th century onwards. In 1833, the Parliament passed a further act to abolish slavery in the British West Indies, Canada and the Cape of Good Hope (southern Africa), meaning that it was now illegal to buy or own a person in the British Empire. -
Amistad Trial
In 839, a large group of Africans was abducted and shipped to the Caribbean on the Amistad. The Africans killed the captain and the cook and were on their way to sail to Africa but they were seized and imprisoned on charges of murder. Although the charges were dismissed, the Africans continued to be held as the focus of the case that was turned to property rights. President Adams defended the right of the accused to fight to regain their freedom because they were illegally held as slaves. -
Fugitive Slave Act:
The Fugitive Slave Act was a law that allowed for the capture and return of runaway slaves within the territory of the United States. It authorized local governments to seize and return escaped slaves to their owners and punished anyone who aided in their escape. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which added further laws regarding runaways and created even harsher punishments for interfering in their capture. Both laws were formally withdrawn by an act of Congress in 1864. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 consists of five laws that were introduced by Senator Henry Clay on January 29, 1850. These laws dealt with the issue of slavery. In 1849 California wanted to become a free state which brought the balance between slave and free states off. Senator Clay introduced these laws in an attempt to seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North and South. Furthermore,California entered the Union as a free state and a territorial government was created in Utah. -
The Civil War in the United States of America (April 12th, 1861- April 9th 1865)
The American Civil War, also called War Between the States, was a four-year war (1861–1865) between the federal government of the United States and 11 Southern states that asserted their right to secede from the Union. The Northern States were against having slaves and 1860, they wanted to abolish slavery altogether. The Southern States were made up of plantations and needed the slaves to work on them. They wanted to keep the slaves adn that was among other things the reason for the war. -
Signing the Emancipation Proclamation
On January 1st, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." Also, the Emancipation Proclamation enabled black men to join the army and the navy. By the end of the Civil War, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had fought in the war. -
Slavery Ends in the United States
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution declared that "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." On December 6th 1865, slavery was abolished in the United States, freeing approximately 4 million slaves. -
U.S. ratifies 13th amendment to the Constitution
The 13th amendment, which formally abolished slavery in the United States, passed the Senate on April 8, 1864, and the House on January 31, 1865. On February 1, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress submitting the proposed amendment to the state legislatures. The necessary number of states ratified it by December 6, 1865. Even though President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 did not end slavery in the nation and he recognized that his proc -
Jim Crow Laws (1877-1960)
Jim Crow was the name of a racial caste system that mostly operated in the southern borders of the United States from the 1880’s into the 1960’s. Jim Crow was a set of anti-black laws and some of the beliefs of the Jim Crow laws were that white people were superior to black people in every way including intelligence, morality and civilized behavior. -
Slavery ends in Brazil
Brazil had the largest slave population in the world, substantially larger than the United States. The Portuguese who settled Brazil needed labor to work the large estates and mines in their new Brazilian colony. Estimates suggest that more than 3 million Africans reached Brazil. Abolishing slavery was the last major action taken by the Brazilian royal family. Brazil proved to be the last Western Hemisphere country to abolish slavery. -
Civil Rights Movement for African Americans in the U.S.
The American Civil Rights Movement was a mass protest against racial discrimination that occurred during the mid 1950’s. Through nonviolent protest, the protestors achieved the most important breakthrough in equal-rights legislation which enabled them to abolish the Jim Crow Laws -
Brown vs. Board of education- U.S. supreme court case
In May 17th, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional. This was the end of racial segregation in schools in the United States, which overruled the “separate but equal” principle. -
Civil Rights Movement for African Americans in the U.S. (1955-1968)
The African-American Civil Rights Movement were social movements in the U.S. that were trying outlaw racial discrimination against black Americans and giving them voting rights. It was a nonviolent movement that created many noted laws among others, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which banned discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin. This movements gave African-Americans the same rights as white people. -
Murder of Emmett Till
Emmett Till was a 14 year old boy, visiting his relatives in Mississippi. He went into a grocery store and supposedly whistled at the cashier of the store, who was white on August 19th, 1955. On August 24th, 1955, Emmett was kidnapped from his relatives house, and brutally beat the boy. He was later on shot in the head and thrown into the Tallahatchie River, where he was found three days later. His mother in Chicago had an open casket funeral and Emmett’s body was on display for five days, to sh -
Freedom Riders Movement
On May 4th, 1961, a group of black and white men and women across the country boarded buses, trains and planes bound to the South of the U.S.A to challenge that region‘s outdated Jim Crow laws. On the way to the south, the colored and the white people sat together and ate together, which was considered a crime. They were beat by angry mobs, but they themselves used nonviolence, like Martin Luther King Jr. Upon their arrival in Jackson, the freedom Riders were all put behind bars, all 350 of them -
Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination
In the evening of April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed by a single sniper shot which struck his face and neck. He was standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, just in front of his room when the shot came without a warning. He was brought to the hospital but about an hour later, he was pronounced dead at 7:05 PM at St. Joseph Hospital. -
Last Country to Ban Slavery
The last country to ban slavery was Mauritania. This country only banned slavery in 1981, nearly 120 years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in the United States. An estimate of about 3.4 million people are enslaved in Mauritania and up until now, only one slave owner has been fully prosecuted.
