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Start of Slavery
At Jamestown, Virginia, approximately 20 captive Africans are sold into slavery in the British North American colonies. -
Legalization
Massachusetts is the first colony to legalize slavery. -
Hereditary Act
Virginia enacts a law of hereditary slavery meaning that a child born to an enslaved mother inherits her slave status. -
Bacon's Rebellion
In Virginia, black slaves and black and white indentured servants band together to participate in Bacon's Rebellion. -
Rice Cultivation Starts
Rice cultivation is introduced into Carolina. Slave importation increases dramatically. -
Virginia Slave Codes
The Virginia Slave Code codifies slave status, declaring all non-Christian servants entering the colony to be slaves. It defines all slaves as real estate, acquits masters who kill slaves during punishment, forbids slaves and free colored peoples from physically assaulting white persons, and denies slaves the right to bear arms or move abroad without written permission. -
New York Slave Revolts
An alleged slave revolt in New York City leads to violent outbreaks. Nine whites are killed and eighteen slaves are executed. -
Slave Codes Reversal
The Spanish reverse a 1730 decision and declare that slaves fleeing to Florida from Carolina will not be sold or returned. -
Stono Rebellion
Slaves in Stono, South Carolina, rebel, sacking and burning an armory and killing whites. The colonial militia puts an end to the rebellion before slaves are able to reach freedom in Florida. -
First Separate Black Church
The first separate black church in America is founded in South Carolina. -
Quaker Sentiment
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers, forbids its members from holding slaves; the same year the declaration of independence is signed -
Court Success
Mum Bett and another Massachusetts slave successfully sue their master for freedom. -
Northwest Ordinance
The Northwest Ordinance forbids slavery, except as criminal punishment, in the Northwest Territory (later Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin). Residents of the territory are required to return fugitive slaves. -
Constitution Ratification
The U.S. Constitution is officially adopted by the new nation when New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify it. The document includes a fugitive slave clause and the "three-fifths" clause by which each slave is considered three-fifths of a person for the purposes of congressional representation and tax apportionment. -
Cotton Boom
Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin, making cotton production more profitable. The market value of slaves increases as a result. -
Resistance
In Pennsylvania the Underground Railroad is officially established. -
ACS
The American Colonization Society is founded to help free blacks resettle in Africa. -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise forbids slavery in the Louisiana territory 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. -
An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World
In Boston, Massachusetts, David Walker publishes his widely read vociferous condemnation of slavery, AN APPEAL TO THE COLORED CITIZENS OF THE WORLD. -
Turner's Rebellion
Nat Turner, an enslaved Baptist preacher believing himself divinely inspired, leads a violent rebellion in Southampton, Virginia. At least 57 whites are killed. -
NASSC
New York City hosts the first National Anti-Slavery Society Convention. -
Prigg v. Pennsylvania
In the case of Prigg v. Pennsylvania, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the 1793 Fugitive Slave law is constitutional, while state personal liberty laws make unconstitutional demands on slave owners. Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave law is declared the federal government's responsibility, not the states'. -
Free Soil Party
Anti-slavery groups organize the Free Soil Party, a group opposed to the westward expansion of slavery from which the Republican Party will later be born. -
Compromise of 1850
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 slave trade in D.C. -
Dred Scott Decision
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. -
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln is elected to the presidency. -
Limited Abolition
Congress abolishes slavery in Washington, D.C., and the territories. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in areas of rebellion. -
Thirteenth Amendment
The thirteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishes slavery throughout the country. -
Black Representatives
Two African Americans sit in the Massachusetts Legislature. It is the first time black representatives have participated in this branch of American government. -
Reconstruction Acts
Congress overrides Presidential vetoes to pass the first, second, and third Reconstruction Acts, ushering in the period known as "Radical Reconstruction," during which the governments of all Southern States, except Tennessee, are declared invalid and the states are broken up into military districts overseen by federal troops. -
Redeemer Governments
Tennessee is the first of many Southern states to establish an all white, Democratic "Redeemer" government sympathetic to the cause of the former Confederacy and against racial equality. -
Ku Klux Klan Act
The Ku Klux Klan Act is passed, giving the federal government the right to mete out punishment where civil rights laws are not upheld and to use military force against anti-civil rights conspiracies.
